https://www.cbsnews.com/news/flight-attendant-southwest-assault-passenger-trend/
A Southwest Airlines flight attendant who lost two teeth after she was physically assaulted by a passenger on Sunday is among the more egregious examples of an unsettling increase in unruly and dangerous behavior on the part of air travelers. (Note: If you've seen the pictures the flight attendant was clearly beaten up quite badly. I mean, like throttled.)
The incident came a day before the Federal Aviation Administration fined a passenger $52,500 for trying to open the cockpit door and hit a flight attendant in the face twice on a Delta Air Lines flight in late December.
The FAA has received about 2,500 reports of unruly passenger behavior and 1,900 reports of passengers refusing to wear masks in defiance of a federal mandate. More than 3,000 passengers have been banned from flying. It's about doggone time.
In a typical year, the agency sees 100 to 150 formal cases of bad passenger behavior. Since the start of this year, that number has jumped to 2,500!
Why? Could it be the general decline in civility in society? COVID anxiety? Jamming people into seats like sardines while the guy behind you decides to prop his foot up on an armrest?