[imagesource: Twitter / Taro Arai]

I’ve always had sympathy for flight attendants.

Jetting around the world may sound glamourous, but dealing with entitled passengers for hours on end isn’t my cup of tea.

COVID-19 has introduced an entirely new scenario into the mix – the wearing of masks – with some rather dire consequences.

We recently covered the story of a flight attendant who had some teeth knocked out by a passenger. That is far from an isolated incident.

Unruly-passenger events have increased by a rate of 60 this year, and one flight attendant told The Washington Post that “the general public is unravelling”.

As the same woman pointed out, it’s all about respect:

We have seen incidents in South Africa, too, like that anti-masker booted off a FlySafair flight back in March.

In another report by The Washington Post, it was pointed out that the situation could actually get worse as more travel routes open up:

The return of international flights in greater numbers could also lead to more incidents, said Doug Drury, professor of aviation at the University of South Australia.

“When borders reopen and long-haul travel returns we may see some events related to mask requirements on 6- to 17-hour flights,” he said in an email.

Sara Nelson, the international president of the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA seen in the video above, said US flight attendants have noticed a clear pattern to in-flight bad behaviour:

“There tends to be greater incidents where you are flying out of a place where local and state leaders have said that the pandemic is a hoax, that masks are not necessary, all of those things,” she said…

“It’s pervasive. There is constant conflict on board.”

And just like that, all pretences of the glamourous flight attendant life were vanquished.

As for those who work on private jets – you can be the judge of that.

[source:washpost]