Froma Harrop

America is the land of plenty, but to many, it’s become a world of envy and anger. Nowadays, malcontents seem to feel more entitled to act out in anti-social ways.

Their loss of self-control is most troubling in an airplane, where many humans are trapped in an aluminum tube. The result has been a 49% increase in U.S. air rage incidents from the pre-COVID era. As of June this year, the number of complaints reached 783.

The airlines cite several causes, with increased alcohol consumption being a big one. Many have limited beverage service on certain flights, but some passengers bring their own booze onboard. Bad behavior may also reflect the hangover from COVID restrictions and a citizenry that’s being stoked by political and social anger.

Another factor, for sure, is untreated mental illness. How else can you explain a man reportedly pinning an American Airlines flight attendant against the cockpit door because he didn’t like the vegetarian meal? And the craziness is hardly limited to Americans. In May, a man on an Asiana Airlines flight in South Korea tried to open an exit door while the plane was still in the air. He told police that felt suffocated and wanted to get off.

The thing is, there’s always been mental illness. What seems to have changed is the ease at which it can get triggered. This may reflect loneliness and social media’s feeding of resentments — or its invention of fake ones. Already mentioned is political tension, with Donald Trump the most dangerous stoker.

“I am your retribution,” he says. Retribution for what? Did a flight attendant tell you in 2021 that everyone had to put on a face mask and for that you threw a tantrum? It’s notable that some airlines didn’t restore alcohol sales until Sept. 13, 2021, when the federal mask mandate for airplanes expired.

The FBI investigates crimes committed aboard aircraft, and the list of offenses is extensive. It includes sexual assault, indecent exposure, hitting crew members, threatening or intimidating flight attendants. Last March, a passenger tried to open an aircraft door and used a makeshift weapon to attack a flight attendant.

The Association of Flight Attendants-CWA wants flight attendants to receive mandatory self-defense training. And the Federal Aviation Administration has put up signs in airports informing travelers that there will be consequences for disruptive behavior.

We get some of it. There have been a lot of flight cancellations and delayed departures of late. Tickets have gotten very expensive. Meanwhile, “revenge travel” — we should hate that term — has kept the flights packed. Revenge travel refers to the perceived need to spread one’s wings after the pandemic shutdowns.

Some of the disorderly passengers spill out into their destinations and cause trouble for the locals. Amsterdam, whose openness to drugs and sex has attracted drunken partiers from all over, wants the carousers gone. Prague is also unhappy with its gangs of bar-crawling tourists.

I’ve been on seriously delayed flights, crowded craft where passengers with carry-ons had to compete for overhead compartment space, and marveled at how stoic my fellow passengers were. One could feel everyone’s total admiration for the flight attendants who acted professionally under trying circumstances.

Who are these people who taunt flight attendants by refusing to fasten their seat belts? They could be weaklings, unable to contain their emotions. Or they may not have been raised properly. Perhaps they’re simply bad people.

Something has happened in our society to make so many fly off the handle over imagined or exaggerated injustices. And there’s not much escape from them in a crowded airliner.

Dealing with the bad actors is a job for law enforcement. Everyone else, control yourselves.

Froma Harrop is a syndicated columnist. She can be emailed at fharrop@gmail.com.