Good thing this NASA airline safety report didn’t go to the shredder

Idle hands are the Devil’s playground. While monitoring NASA’s site for the controversial air travel safety study, I couldn’t help but notice another survey that suggests the real safety hazard isn’t airlines, but airline passengers.

“Reports in the media and popular films frequently leave the impression that the main safety threats to commercial air carrier operations involve bombs, terrorist hijackings, and hazardous cargo,” the report on the Aviation Safety Reporting System (ASRS) section of NASA’s Web site declares. “Pilot and flight attendant reports to the ASRS indicate that passengers themselves are an unexpected source of many inflight safety problems, ranging from the merely annoying, to those that pose serious interference with crew duties and a potential risk to aircraft structural integrity.”

Before I continue, I should note that this is a decade-old report. But it offers interesting insights into how crewmembers felt back then — and probably still feel — about their carg … er, I mean, customers.

The survey found that a recent review of 73 database reports referencing inflight security problems revealed that passengers — “drunken, obstreperous, or dangerously uninformed” — constituted 23 percent of the reports submitted, equaling the number of incidents involving hazardous materials carried in the cargo hold. Among the most interesting ones:

» A “brazen passenger” retrieving his own bags from a commuter baggage compartment.

» An “apparently alcohol-impaired” passenger blocking an emergency exit.

» A passenger traveling with a chainsaw that began leaking during the flight.

» A deranged passenger who “tried to force open the main cabin door.”

» A sedated and inebriated passenger who “walking around the cabin with a wine bottle” and annoying his seat partner.

The NASA report concluded there was a “serious and growing problem with passenger inflight incidents.” They were right, of course. Only a few years later, the 9/11 hijackers crashed planes into skyscrapers, plunging the United States into a “war” on terrorism.

The question is, does the 2007 national survey of pilots suggest trouble ahead for air safety? And if NASA downplays the importance of the survey so that it doesn’t “hurt airline profits” is it really doing us any favors?

Christopher Elliott is the author of Scammed: How to Save Your Money and Find Better Service in a World of Schemes, Swindles, and Shady Deals. Critics have called it “eye-opening” and “inspiring” — it’ll “grab your attention and won’t let go.” Order your copy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble or iTunes.

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