Air rage incidents are rising and researchers found that first class flights may be partially responsible for the phenomenon. According to analyses economy class passengers are four times more likely to act up in planes that have first class sections.
The Los Angeles Times points out that these cases of air rage are not only disruptive but pose real danger among passengers and crew members. The psychological off-shoot from class division in air planes translate to physical actuations among both first class and economy class passengers.
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According to the study, air rage incidents increase even more in probability when first class passengers and economy class passengers were made to walk through the first class section together. In these cases air rage cases increase 12 times among first class passengers. Economy class passengers are twice more likely to throw a fit in such cases.
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Science Mag recounts flight incidents where are rage occurred in flights that have first class sections. A Chinese passenger doused a flight attendant with boiling hot water when the passenger could not be given change in the preferred currency. Another passenger from China threatened to blow up the plane when his travel group could not sit together.
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This is not to say that air rage is commonplace or always as horrific. Some air rage incidents involve simple belligerence or verbal altercations.
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The study, which was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, tapped into millions of domestic and international flight records from an airline company. Based on records, the expansion of first class sections across the year seemed to trigger a rise in the count of air rage cases, especially from among economy class passengers.
The researchers proposed that airplanes are scaled down versions of the society. As class divisions trigger unrest among citizens, so do seat classes trigger air rage.
