The end of COVID pandemic and the seemingly endless debate over the mandated wearing of masks didn’t end sometimes physical violence on airplanes.
The pandemic only seemed to trigger air rage incidents. And now flight attendance have intensified their 20 year battle to get mandated self-defense training courses.
With the Federal Aviation Administration reauthorization bill coming up in the fall, Congress is trying to address that.
A provision in a new Senate bill would require flight attendants to undergo that training to subdue and restrain unruly passengers.
“Obviously the last three years have given us ample reasons for why self-defense is an important part of training for flight attendants,” said Taylor Garland, a spokesperson for the Association of Flight Attendants, a union that has pushed for the training mandate.
At issue is, of course, money.
The airlines believe any expenditures for the self-defense courses should fall on the government and not on private enterprise.
“The airlines were always loath to pay for it,” said former Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.)
The trade group Airlines for America said in a statement that “safety and security of passengers and employees is the top priority.”
Flight attendants have worked with the Transportation Security Administration for years on de-escalation tactics, but self-defense was just an option and not a mandate. Current law requires airlines to train their flight crews in self-defense tactics but some flight attendants say the language is too broad and can be interpreted in several different ways.
Flight attendants have been punched and stabbed in recent times, so it will be interesting to see how this issue is tackled when FAA reauthorization comes up.
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