Why Airports Might Impose Tougher Alcohol Restrictions

Over the past few years, the rate of strange alcohol-fueled incidents on airplanes has risen sharply. Last year, a group of bachelorettes were involved in a fight while flying to Barcelona. And just last week, a flight to Dublin was diverted to Denmark so a drunk man could be arrested after taking his clothes off and becoming physically violent, reports the Daily Mail. An industry insider says bachelor party groups that drink heavily prior to departure are partially to blame. The endless complimentary beverages on airlines like Qatar Airways is surely part of the problem as well.

Although it is a criminal offense to be drunk while on board an aircraft, such incidents—which have included bomb threats, assaults on aircrew, smoking in bathrooms and even attempts to gain entry into the cockpit—have tripled in the last three years according to the UK’s Civil Aviation Authority. In response, officials have encouraged airports to impose tougher restrictions on alcohol sales.

Meanwhile, the Civil Aviation Administration of China said it was considering taking steps to blacklist offending passengers, like one woman from China who threw a cup of noodles at a flight attendant when she found out that she wouldn’t be sitting next to her boyfriend on a charter flight from Bangkok to Nanjing. [Daily Mail] [Photo: Flickr.com/michal818]