Filthy passengers, creepy flight attendants, and an off-duty pilot's intrusive thoughts ruined air travel for all of us this year

29.10.2023 - 15:59 / insider.com

If you've been dreading the idea of taking a flight lately, you're not alone.

It seems no airplane these days is immune from unruly passengers or grumpy staff, but after this week's news of an off-duty pilot nabbing himself 83 felony counts of attempted murder after trying to stop a plane's engine mid-flight, the issues on board your standard passenger craft in 2023 are feeling a whole lot worse than usual.

That's the consensus among passengers, anyway: In a consumer satisfaction survey by JD Power, airline customers' favorable opinions slid an average of seven points this year, down to 791 on a 1,000-point scale. This is the second year of a significant decrease in satisfaction across the commercial aviation world, as customers reported their satisfaction plummeted 22 points the year prior. 

While customers cite sky-high ticket costs that have increased as much as 25% as a primary reason flying is less favorable these days, JD Power also found customer satisfaction at airports has gone up in the same timeframe — so what's happening in the sky that's turned passengers off? 

Looking at reports from the year, there's a pronounced trend of behavior going from bad to worse, not just among passengers but also among airline employees, which could be a driving factor behind the discontent.

Over the summer, a baffling video of a woman storming off an American Airlines plane went viral after she was filmed accusing another passenger of being "not real" and was dubbed the "crazy plane lady" in memes that circulated the internet. 

In September, a Delta flight made a U-turn and returned to Atlanta, where it had departed after a "biohazard issue" happened on board, Insider previously reported. An audio clip of the incident went viral of a pilot on board being recorded describing the situation: "We've had a passenger who's had diarrhea all the way through the airplane, so they want us to come back to Atlanta."  

But, far from your run-of-the-mill breakdown or filthy behavior in shared space, on-board incidents involving violence and sometimes criminal behavior have also grabbed headlines this year.

In July, a Sun Country Airlines passenger was arrested after climbing out of an emergency exit and jumping off the plane wing. A month later, a Delta passenger put a flight attendant in a choke hold and threatened to cut off her head with a piece of glass after an altercation on board.

Passengers aren't the only ones acting up, though. In September, an American Airlines flight attendant was reportedly led off the plane by police after a passenger told people there was a camera in the bathroom.

The attendant used "psychological tricks" to try to convince a teen girl there was nothing strange happening after she saw the