85% of flight attendants have dealt with an unruly passenger in 2021: Survey

A new survey found that 85% of flight attendants have dealt with an unruly passenger in 2021.

As more people return to the skies, the largest flight attendant union in the U.S. is sounding the alarm on a rise in unruly passengers. Eighty-five percent of the nearly 5,000 U.S. flight attendants The Association of Flight Attendants-CWA, AFL-CIO (AFA) surveyed said they had dealt with an unruly passenger in 2021. Almost 60% said they had experienced not one, but at least five incidents this year, and 17% reported that the incident got physical. Flight attendants recalled incidents in which visibly drunk passengers verbally abused them, "aggressively" challenged them for making sure passengers were in compliance with the federal mask mandate, shoved them, kicked seats, threw trash at them and defiled the restrooms.