By Hannah Reich Berman
What happened to those “friendly skies” we once heard so much about? Not long ago, a passenger who refused to relinquish his seat, as should have been his right, was forcibly dragged off the plane. In full view of the other passengers, he was dragged by local police along the aisle of the plane. This was the solution that United Airlines used because, as most airlines do, they had overbooked the flight! The scene played on YouTube and everywhere else, and the outrage was unanimous. The CEO ultimately made a public apology.
Not long after that, a Delta Air Lines pilot was accused of slapping a female passenger in the face because she was involved in a three-way fracas. The problem began when a woman, who suffered from blood clots and needed to get off the plane as quickly as possible, was blocked by a passenger who was busy on her iPhone. The phone user refused to move in a timely fashion. One word led to another and a physical fight ensued.
It became a three-way fracas because the cousin of the woman with the medical condition got involved and tried to get the offending passenger to move. Eventually the cousin got the non-moving passenger in a chokehold and refused to let go. The pilot was alerted and got involved by grabbing the cousin’s arm. That would have been enough, but the pilot took it a step further and smacked her in the face–clearly a most unusual move from an airline pilot!
These types of fights have become so commonplace that nobody pressed charges, and the offending pilot was not even mentioned in the police report.
Passengers are fighting with crew members and, more often, fighting with each other. Just a few weeks later, two male passengers were seen smacking one another around. The fight appeared to be a violent one, but it was later determined that, for some reason, the entire thing had been staged. Possibly the staging was done to show that real fights onboard are breaking out with increasing frequency.
One recent argument started when a man and a woman argued over seat-reclining. The male passenger was using a $22 item known as the Knee Defender, which prevented the female passenger in front of him from reclining. As it is the right of every passenger to recline, a flight attendant politely asked the man to remove the device, but he refused. This made the woman passenger so angry that she stood up and threw a cup of water (some reports indicated that it was actually soda) in the man’s face. Things got so out of hand that the plane had to be diverted and the two pugilists removed. And on and on it goes.
Some people have a fear of flying because they worry about crashes. Others are afraid to fly because they do not trust airport security and they worry about terrorists being on board. Things have gotten worse, and it now appears that one has to be concerned about a different type of danger: There are more violent fights than there are terrorists and plane crashes.
And if air travel is not enough of a problem, currently there are issues with train travel as well. Infrastructure problems at New York’s Penn Station have caused major delays, disrupting the commute for tens of thousands of people. On a daily basis, passengers who use the Long Island Rail Road to get to and from work are having a horrific time of it. And this is a daily ordeal. Unfortunately, if those who use the LIRR every day are not miserable enough, major construction and repair work is due to start very shortly, which will further increase the number of delays. For many thousands of LIRR riders, it promises to be a long, hot, and very frustrating summer.
So not only have the friendly skies disappeared, but train travel in this area is also not friendly. It seems that the only peaceful mode of travel is walking. There have been some highly publicized cases of people who have walked across this great big country of ours–usually for a charitable cause. But cause or no cause, there is a limit to how far the average person can get on foot. While walking is admirable and an activity that is highly recommended by physicians, it is not terribly convenient for people who need to traverse long distances every day. That’s just the way it is.
Hannah Berman lives in Woodmere and gives private small-group lessons in mah-jongg and canasta. She can be reached at Savtahannah@aol.com or 516-902-3733.
