Drink up up and away.....
 
British Airways cabin crew get plastered.
 
AUGUST 1998
Battered BA cabin crew,  including a stewardess with a leg in plaster recently attended court to give evidence in the successful prosecution of a violent drunken passenger.  "Air rage" incidents are on the increase, particularly on flights which offer unlimited free intoxicating liquor.  Late October 1998 UK media reports describe another court case on an Airtours flight where a drunken passenger smashed a bottle over the head of a stewardess, and then used the jagged remains to severely gash her resulting in permanent scarring. An obvious but admittedly unpopular solution would be to ban or restrict the consumption of alcohol during flight.

Major airlines are reported as contemplating cooperating to form a "blacklist" of   known  "Air rage" passengers,  but it appears they must first commit an incident to be included on the Blacklist.

December 1998.
Manchester England.  A Crown Court Judge vowed to continue his campaign to force airlines to review their policy of serving drinks to passengers after hearing how a man drunkenly groped two stewardesses.
Judge Anthony Ensor who jailed Peter Heys 34, for 18 months was told that Heys was plied with drink on the Britannia Airways flight from Manchester to Thailand.  Daily Mail December 1st 1998.

BA cabin crew training now increases emphasis on manhandling drunken and aggressive passengers including handcuffing and other forms of restraint.  Those qualified in aviation are surprised that such training does not draw attention to the accelerated rate of intoxication experienced in the artificial atmosphere of pressurized aircraft.  Passengers are also usually blissfully unaware that the volatility of the already flammable nature of spirits such as Gin and Vodka is increased at high altitude turning each bottle into a potential bomb,  especially in the event of loss of  pressurization or severe turbulence.  A ban on smoking has been in place on BA flights for a number of years - this controversial measure has many supporters but its main  purpose is to reduce maintenance costs on pressurization and air conditioning systems, rather than passenger comfort.
 
 BA allocate a large area of  aircraft storage space to intoxicating liquor but apparently can't find space to carry a life-saving medical defibrillator.  The compact,  comparatively cheap, simple to use machines are carried by most other major airlines.  A doctor aboard a recent BA flight criticized the airline when his unsuccessful attempt to resuscitate a fellow passenger in cardiac arrest was handicapped by the non availability of  a defibrillator. The doctor later said " There was a chance that he may have survived ------I would advise anyone with a heart problem not to fly BA"

A spokesman for the Resuscitation Council said, "Defibrillation, which is only way to restart the heart, must take place within eight minutes".  BA  said, "the use of defibrillators was under active review".

This webmaster personally witnessed a disturbing event while waiting at the arrivals barrier at Terminal No.1 London (Heathrow Airport) in July 1998.  An elderly gentleman suddenly collapsed with no signs of life.  It was nearly 30 minutes before the worlds busiest airport was able to produce a defibrillator.
 

Scareways