Flight Safety Starts with Better Clothing on Airplanes, Transportation Sec. Says

Safety at Work

Washington, DC (WorkersCompensation.com) – As incidents of unruly passengers continue to plague flight attendants and other airline personnel, the U.S. Department of Transportation hopes the problem can be solved with civility.

In a new video, starring U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, the US DOT urges passengers to be kind to one another as a way to protect airline employees from unruly passengers.

The video begins with images from the 1950s and 60s of women and men in suits and hats cordially boarding a spacious airplane before switching to images of airline passengers attacking flight attendants and other passengers, or airline personnel at the gate.

A voice over urges passengers to think back to when flying was “a bastion of civility,” and to remember that “manners don’t stop at the gate.”

The US DOT said the video is a public service announcement that is part of a new campaign to “restore courtesy and class to air travel” amid continuing high numbers of disruptive passenger incidents.

According to the US DOT, since 2019 airline travel has become “more unruly” with a 400 percent increase in in-flight outbursts. The FAA has recorded more than 13,800 unruly passenger incidents since 2021, the department said, with 2024 reporting double the number of unruly passenger events compared to 2019.

The problem is a dangerous one for flight attendants. According to a 2021 survey of 5,000 U.S. flight attendants by The Association of Flight Attendants-CWA, AFL-CIO, 85 percent said that they had dealt with an unruly passenger that year.

To put the FAA’s numbers in context, in 2019 there were 1,161 unruly passenger incidents. That number dropped to 1,009 during 2020 when flights were restricted because of the pandemic. In 2021, when flights re-opened but passengers were subject to mask mandates, incidents increased to 5,973. That year the FAA instituted a "Zero Tolerance" policy toward violent behavior and began working with the FBI to prosecute unruly passengers under existing legislation that makes such behavior a crime. 

In 2022, when mask mandates were eased, the incidents dropped to 2,455. And in 2023, the number of incidents dropped even further to 2,075. By 2024, the number of incidents had started to rise again to 2,102. As of mid-November of this year, the FAA has recorded 1,431 unruly passenger incidents.

On Nov. 11, a flight carrying four Congressmembers (U.S. Reps. Greg Stanton (D-Ariz.), Eli Crane (R-Ariz.), Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.) and Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.)) was diverted when a “disruptive passenger” caused a disturbance after takeoff from Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport. The flight had been in the air for nearly three hours, when it was diverted to Kansas City International Airport after the passenger yelled, “We live in a fascist state.”

In late October, Spirit Airlines delayed take off of a plane in Nashville International Airport to have airport police remove a passenger from a flight. Officials said more than 100 passengers were on board Flight 1499 for a flight from Nashville to Los Angeles. Flight crews called airport police when the passenger refused to listen to flight attendants' requests and engaged in “disruptive” behavior. The woman was taken off the flight and banned from any future flights, the airline said.

The department said Thursday’s announcement was intended to keep flight attendants and passengers safe by making passengers think about class as more than a seat category.

“The campaign is intended to jumpstart a nationwide conversation around how we can all restore courtesy and class to air travel,” the DOT announcement said. “This won’t just make the travel experience better for the flying public – it will ensure the safety of passengers, gate workers, flight attendants, and pilots.”

Duffy said in the video that stemming that violence started with passengers being more civil to one another.

“Ask yourself, are you helping that pregnant woman with her bag in the overhead bin?” he asks in the video. “Are you dressing with respect? Are you keeping control of your children? Are you saying thank you to your flight attendants and pilots? Are you saying thank you in general? The Golden Age of travel begins with you.”

The department said in a press release on Thursday it was committed to building an all-new air traffic control system, hiring more air traffic control workers and making travel more family friendly to usher in the Golden Age of Travel for the American people. But getting there would take the American people’s cooperation.

“There’s no question we’ve lost sight of what makes travel fun – the excitement, the relaxation, the cordial conversations,” the DOT said in a press release. “Americans already feel divided and stressed. We can all do our part to bring back civility, manners, and common sense. When we can unite around shared values, we can feel more connected as a country.”

Gary Leff, a travel expert, said the problem with unruly passengers had little to do with their dress or manners.

“This has a sort of ‘old man yells at clouds’ vibe, telling young people of today not to wear such baggy pants. But I sympathize! I’m a middle aged white guy, and when I started flying as a child in the 70s I was forced to wear a button-down shirt and tie,” he wrote on the travel blog “A View from the Wing.” “Still, passenger dress has little to do with the conflict in the skies he’s worried about..”

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