- Flight attendants are taking self-defense trainings again as unruly passenger violence surges.
- One flight attendant is asking passengers for "grace and understanding," Spectrum News 1 reports.
- "We're just here to do our jobs and go home to our families at night," he told the channel.
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Unruly airplane passenger incidents have become increasingly common throughout the pandemic, and flight attendants are brushing up their self-defense skills in response.
One flight attendant is also asking passengers for a little more compassion the next time they board a plane.
Nick Guillot, a flight attendant with Southwest Airlines for nearly 20 years, told Spectrum News 1 in south Texas he has never been in an altercation with a disruptive passenger but "you always have to be aware and ready."
"It feels like given the environment, everyone's at the top of their threshold and they're willing to lash out at any minute," he told Spectrum.
Guillot wants to remind passengers to be considerate of his fellow flight attendants.
"We're just here to do our jobs and go home to our families at night, just like you are," he continued in the Spectrum interview. "So we just ask for a little bit of grace and understanding."
His plea comes as unruly passenger incidents continue to climb. So far this year, the Federal Aviation Administration has already proposed more than $1 million in civil penalties against disruptive passengers. The FAA has received more than 4,000 reports of unruly passenger behavior this year, of which roughly 3,000 came from passengers flouting the federal mask mandate.
The Transportation Security Administration had resumed self-defense trainings for flight attendants in July. The classes had previously been paused due to COVID-19 restrictions.