Justified fear of flying

"Jet-setters" around the world have long considered themselves superior to mere mortals who have to travel by rail or bus.

And they are used to being waited on, hand and foot, by servile, simpering flight attendants who will acquiesce to their every need.

However, a recent incident aboard a United Airlines flight may give them pause for thought the next time they snap their fingers at the nearest trolley dolly.

A Shanghainese couple returning from a holiday in Guam learnt the hard way that abusing airline staff can have consequences that are unimaginable compared to treating other service industry personnel in the same way.

A flight attendant temporarily removed their suitcase from an overhead locker in order to make room for more bags. The hapless pair took great offence at this action, ensuing in an ugly argument with the female attendant responsible. They insisted that the woman should have asked their permission first before touching their property.

In times gone by, the air hostess (as they were quaintly known) would have smiled, apologized, hastily replaced the bag, and asked if they would like a complimentary drink by means of placation.

On this occasion, however, the couple's refusal to give up on this particular argument led to them being escorted off the plane by armed guards, leaving their 12-year-old daughter to fly home to Shanghai alone.

Oh, how times change. Once, the phrase "the customer is king" applied as much to airlines as it did to any other professional industry. After all, without satisfied customers what business can survive?

The problem today is that airlines have to worry about a lot more than keeping passengers happy. They have to worry about keeping their passengers safe in an environment that is - quite literally - inescapable, certainly for the few hours that the crew and passengers are airborne.

The horrors of 9/11 undoubtedly brought this uncomfortable reality into even sharper focus. But even before then, airlines had begun to operate a policy of extreme vigilance, of which zero tolerance to bad behavior formed only one part.

And the sometimes distressing consequences of this have made for populist news stories. So we have read about the 6-year-old girl who was subjected to an extensive "pat-down" physical inspection at New Orleans Armstrong International Airport in April last year. The reporters didn't forget to tell us that the little girl was visibly distressed the whole time, complaining "I don't want to do this" before breaking down in tears. And then there was the infamous incident in Florida in which a 95-year-old woman in a wheelchair, struggling in the final stages of leukemia, was forced to stand up and remove her adult diaper during a body search.

And let's not forget the children's author ejected from an Atlantic Southeast Airlines flight last June for using the f-word which was overheard by a member of crew in exasperation at the flight's delay.

Traveling by plane used to be an unalloyed pleasure, untainted by the fear that something bad could actually happen to us. Recent, unfortunate events have proved that as wonderful as air travel is, it also poses dangers that cannot be ignored. So the next time we think that airline staff are being unusually prickly let's remember that our life is in their hands.