I just read about another sexual assault during flight. In a link to another column, the FBI has reported that this situation has been increasing dramatically in the past few years.

EVERY airline needs a plan and training for flight crews so that if this occurs, they know what to do. It seems that no US airline today has taken this into consideration.

LEOs said that everyone that was involved needs to be interviewed before they leave the plane, so that an accurate assessment of what to do can be made.

Fly Safe!

I saw a sign at the KCM checkpoint at STL today about this very subject. It looks like the feds are stepping up their awareness campaign

For some reason the public seems to view the airports and flights as a place where all kinds of inappropriate behavior is acceptable.

Welcome to public transportation. This sort of crap is common on the subway of most major cities. Now with the marginalization of air travel we get the same result.

Put the public together and you get the lowest common denominator.

Flight crews do not have the authority to arrest or detain passengers. If the police or FBI want everyone detained they need to meet the flight at the gate in a timely manner. Currently they do not.

They have the same authority as anyone else to make a so called "citizen's arrest". Exact details vary by state, but if you limit yourself to situations in which a serious felony was committed, you should be OK.

In flight the PIC can actually do just about anything necessary for safety of pax and ship.

Of course you might get sued or worse if you're wrong, so don't do it lightly. Occupational hazard I guess.

If you're not sure about an arrest, a good tactic might be to keep the jetway off the plane until you verify that LE has arrived to address the situation.

If an airline has an official policy, then the crew is more protected if they follow it.

If the official policy is reasonable, then that should help protect the airline in the case of a lawsuit.

There was at least one US airline pre-merger dealing with this on a regular basis so that procedures and tools were available.

Protected from the company. Not the criminal or civil legal systems, corporate policy doesn't trump that (But I was just following orders from ENRON headquarters...)

A lawsuit will be decided on the merits of what actually happened, not on the merits of what the company policy said should have happened. The company will be held responsible for employee behavior regardless of company policy.

Yep.... and TSA is leading the way... Thousands Sexually Assaulted