'Airlines share blame for air rage'
NEW DELHI
THE INTERNATIONAL Civil Aviation Organisation, which sets safety standards for the airline industry, says it is advising airline chief executives to travel economy class to help them understand air rage.
Incidents of air rage -- passengers' violent outbursts, which could have serious consequences in the confined space of airplane cabins -- have surged since the mid-1990s, ICAO officials say.
In the past two years, at least three people have died.
ICAO says it hopes to issue guidelines on the subject by the end of the next six or seven months.
Airlines have begun resorting to measures from locking cockpit doors to carrying handcuffs on flights should disruptive passengers need to be restrained to ensure aircraft safety.
"Our feeling is that blaming just the passenger for air rage is wrong, ICAO's secretary general, Brazilian-born R.C.Costa Pereira, told Reuters in an interview on Friday. "Airlines have to share the blame for such incidents.
"We are advising airline CEOs to travel economy class to understand how their passengers are being treated," he said.
"Some airlines are good, but some treat their passengers badly. We want airlines to help passengers deal with the stress of flying with more information and assistance," he said.
He said Montreal-based ICAO was studying the legal aspects of air rage with the aim of developing a clear definition of the problem and devising uniform standards for its 185 member governments to cope with air rage incidents. (Reuters)
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