FLYING HIGH OUR VIEW

LAST weekend, we reported on our web‐site, news of a massive fight onboard a plane travelling from Norway to Alicante in Spain. It appears that the fight was fuelled by the drunken behaviour of a number of passengers and when it arrived in Spain, no fewer than 15 people, all said to be Norwe‐gian were arrested.

There was an unprecedented number of views of the stories and almost 100 readers felt that it would be helpful to make com‐ments, for which we are grateful.

As often happens, some people simply read the title without taking in the content and rushed to blame boozy Brits abroad but on this occasion, they were completely wrong. It rather looks as if these idiots who are used to paying high prices for alcohol in their home country might have been tak‐ing advantage of cheaper in‐flight booze and overdid it!

No excuse and probably 50 per cent of the comments are calling for a ban on alco‐hol sales on all flights, 25 per cent want to see tougher checks before passengers are allowed on board or automatic travel bans if they are convicted of misbehaving on a flight. Roughly a quarter feel that it’s unfair to stop those who drink in moderation from being allowed a beer or glass of wine to help them relax after the flight takes off but all want to see flight attendants try to refuse sales to drunks.

That may be easier said than done as the attendants themselves could leave them‐selves open to verbal abuse or physical at‐tack, but it is clear that something needs to be done to ensure that the majority of trav‐ellers can enjoy (subject to leg room) their flight in peace.