CYPRUS AIRWAYS (CY) is looking at new ways of controlling unruly passengers in the wake of an incident involving four drunken Russians on Saturday’s Moscow to Larnaca flight.
The flight had to be diverted to Salonica after the chief troublemaker among the four had to be restrained as he apparently tried to approach the cockpit. The four Russians were arrested at Salonica airport.
CY spokesman Tassos Angeli said such air rage incidents, though still rare, were increasing alarmingly. “These incidents do happen to us, if rarely, and the worrying thing is that it is happening more frequently,” Angeli said. “It is a concern for all airlines as we are not talking of just bad behaviour but of pass1engers who might get out of control and endanger a flight. It is very serious,” the CY spokesman said.
He said the increase in air rage was an international phenomenon: “At a recent international conference it was said that it had quadroupled in the last few years,” he said.
Like other airlines, CY was keen to find new ways of controlling unruly passengers, Angeli said. “We are in touch with international organisations and we will follow their lead on measures,” said the national carrier’s spokesman. Among things being considered are giving air stewards specific training on how to calm difficult passengers and providing plastic handcuffs with which to confine serious troublemakers to their seats.
“At the moment, it is up to the plot to decide what action to take. Our policy is to prefer to divert a flight – even though this means extra cost for us and extra hassle for the passengers – rather than to allow a flight to be endangered by such people,” Angeli said.
On Saturday, the group of four Russians was drinking heavily on the flight from Moscow.
“They were behaving inappropriately, disturbing fellow passengers, making gestures to a stewardess, throwing food about and smoking in the isle,” Angeli said. “The steward took five empty bottles from them, vodka and other alcoholic drinks, which they had smuggled on board,” he added.
The trouble began as the plane was over Bulgaria and the captain decided to alert Cyprus police to arrest them at Larnaca.
“But then, one of them got up and headed for the club class section. The head steward stood in his way to stop him as he could not know what he was about to do, given the state this passenger was in,” Angeli said.
“The Russian pushed the steward, and though they managed to get him back to his seat, the pilot decided to divert the flight to Salonica, where the troublemakers were arrested.”
The flight got to Larnaca safely, if late.
The only other recent report of air rage on a CY flight was a drunk Anglo-Cypriot groping an air hostess on a flight in May last year.
In August last year, a group of passengers “hijacked” a CY plane at Athens airport, delaying its departure for three hours after they were told the plane would, because of minor damage, be flying to Larnaca without stopping off in Paphos.
The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.
