With unruly passenger incidents on the rise, flight attendants turn to self-defense training

The FAA has received over 3,000 reports of unruly passenger incidents this year.

The "friendly skies" are becoming almost unrecognizable, with record numbers of flight attendants being verbally and physically attacked on flights. The Federal Aviation Administration received 3,810 reports of unruly passengers this year alone – 2,786 of those involving travelers who refused to wear a mask. As a result, flight attendants are increasingly turning to self-defense training to learn how to defuse situations as well as protect themselves and their passengers. "I think people are just kind of just at a tipping point with the pandemic," Robin Gilinger, a flight attendant, said. "And when they're up in the air at 35,000 feet, there's no one to stop them. There's no police officer on the corner they can go to. It's just the flight attendants."