No Nuts Served on the Flight

A few days ago another plane made an emergency landing at Dulles Aiport in Virginia after a passenger became unruly. Now is it me or have we suddenly started seeing an increase in the number of such incidents. There used to be a time when such occurences were so rare that they truly were news stories. However, these days it's not uncommon to see one happen once a week. In a post-9/11 world where no one is quite sure of anything anymore, it is better to be cautious rather than risking something.

In this latest incident, a man dressed in military fatigues (though in no way was he affiliated to the military) began acting strangely a little over three hours into the flight. He began making fists and punching them into the air and soon afterwards he got up from his seat and began trying to open the door on the plane. Several passengers who happened to be standing nearby (undoubtedly waiting for the bathroom) interceded and managed to subdue the man quickly. Air Marshals joined the fray quickly and the man was soon subdued. There is still no reason behind this individual's actions but soon enough there will be some medical rationale behind it.

But this is by no means the first incident where a passenger has gone.... nuts while in flight. Some months back there was a case where an individual began shouting that he had a bomb as his wife ran after him shouting that he did not. Marshals who were undercover on that flight subdued that man as well by using lethal force and shooting him. And last month, a woman began suffering clausterphobia and demanded to get out of the plane. It became so bad that the pilot decided to make an emergency landing at some other airport in order to difuse the situation quickly.

Gone are the days where someone like William Shatner (or John Lithgow in The Twilight Zone) can go a little nuts and act crazy on a cross-country or international flight. That even more so if it is a flight eventually headed to Dulles. Although Dulles is about 20 miles from the city, it seems that most of the people who are having such breakdowns are invariably headed in to Dulles. That being the case, I think one can safely assume that these people aren't terrorists. There were more safety procedures implemented on flights orginating and ending at Washington National than there were at Dulles and as a result, you rarely, if ever, heard of such incidents there.

What is it about Dulles or the flights arriving here that makes people so insane? Whatever the reason, it is a disturbing trend and one that will hopefully become less frequent. One solution would be to end flights to Dulles to see if these folks stop flying. Of course the people who frequently use the airport might get a little ticked. The other thing is start requiring passengers to have medical clearances to get on board the flight. I can already sense psychiatrists beginning to drool at that prospect. Whatever it is, there is an increase in the number of these cases and we need to figure out what it is. We as a society already elminated peanuts from flights (much to the delight of allergy sufferers) so it's time to get rid of the other nuts as well.