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Home  >  Editorial  >  Highly Intoxicated Passenger – What Do You Do?
Editorial

Highly Intoxicated Passenger – What Do You Do?

Kyle Stewart Posted onAugust 25, 2019September 14, 2021 12 Comments
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When an incredibly and obviously intoxicated passenger is on your flight, do you live and let fly or involve yourself in the situation? Admittedly, I didn’t know what to do if a passenger appears intoxicated?


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Highly Intoxicated

This week I flew back on a short 33-minute flight and had the joy of sitting near and next to, a highly, no, unbelievably drunk passenger. We started on a longer flight prior to the shorter connection home and I paid no significant attention to him. I was fortunate enough to be upgraded featuring a dinner service with pre-departure beverages, cocktails, then wine was served with dinner on a 130-minute flight.

I wasn’t counting his alcoholic beverages, I don’t know how many he had. Whatever he had was just a head start on his connection bar trip. Coming from the same flight to the same connecting flight, I noticed him from the previous leg stumbling from a bar stool. He was wearing a purple shirt so that also helped him to stand out.

About 15 minutes prior to boarding the last flight of the day, he was stumbling so badly through the airport hallways, I thought he was injured or handicapped. Then I saw his eyes and remembered him getting around just fine at the prior departure gate during disembarkation.

I was hoping someone might have helped him or alerted the authorities. I’m not really sure what the desired outcome would have been, but the man was not fit for flying, he was barely fit for a nap. But what was my role in his wellness?

Drunk
Drunk

Case for Involving Myself

As I saw him nearly collapse onto the travel-beaten carpet of Terminal D, I considered what I could do to help. He could have fallen face down at that point and hit his head on a handrail (he missed and lurched forward when he tried to grab one), he could have slumped over and choked on his own vomit. He could have been a victim of a crime by an opportunistic thief. He wasn’t able to care for himself and didn’t seem to have the capacity to form a coherent conversation.

He would have been a serious liability in the case of an accident and that could affect me, other passengers and crew members, as well as their families in the worst possible scenario. If a crew member would have served alcohol to him clearly past the limit but didn’t notice during the short night flight where the light was low and the plane was quiet, maybe they would have had additional consequences that they couldn’t otherwise forsee.

I wouldn’t want any of those things to happen to anyone, friend, foe, stranger or acquaintance. As he stumbled off at our mutual destination, my concerns then turned to his ability to get home. Maybe he was taking an Uber or maybe not. He could hurt himself or others and there would be little to stop him from starting his car if he drove himself home.

Case For Minding My Own Business

The airline has some duty to interject in this situation. It starts with the staff on the ground at the departure airport, the gate agent that scanned his ticket, the flight attendant who welcomed him onboard as he stumbled up the stairs. While I am not the “it’s not my job” type – I believe in personal responsibility – it really wasn’t my place.

The passenger wasn’t a disturbance, he slumped over and fell asleep as soon as we took off. He didn’t try to open an exit door, he wasn’t loud or abusive to others on the plane, he was a body in a seat. He ambled off the plane, still stumbling around but he did make it through the terminal, down the escalator, onto the train, and off it again, though without the pole on the train he would have slumped to the floor.

He was clearly of legal age to drink, alcohol is not illegal (though public intoxication is) and if he was riding in a taxi or an Uber (I would have declined that ride) he wasn’t a hazard to others.

Conclusion

In the end, I did nothing. I am at odds with whether or not I should have spoken up and potentially stopped a calamity though gladly there wasn’t one that I know of. If there was nothing negative that ultimately happened, was it a case where he was lucky (I have rarely seen functioning humans that drunk) or should I have stepped in regardless? I remain torn.

What would you do? Would you involve yourself or mind your own business? Do I have a duty to do either?

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About Author

Kyle Stewart

Kyle is a freelance travel writer with contributions to Time, the Washington Post, MSNBC, Yahoo!, Reuters, Huffington Post, MapHappy, Live And Lets Fly and many other media outlets. He is also co-founder of Scottandthomas.com, a travel agency that delivers "Travel Personalized." He focuses on using miles and points to provide a premium experience for his wife and daughter. Email: sherpa@thetripsherpa.com

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12 Comments

  1. Gene Reply
    August 25, 2019 at 8:31 am

    Mind your own business.m is the only reasonable choice here.

  2. Stephen Reply
    August 25, 2019 at 8:49 am

    If I were traveling alone I probably would have said nothing. But, if my wife or another loved one was on that plane there is no way I would have remained silent. Not remotely worth the risk. The article says nothing happened on the flight. That’s great, but it’s all in hindsight.

  3. Mark in Ithaca Reply
    August 25, 2019 at 8:55 am

    There’s no reasonable way for you to intervene directly unless he starts directly affecting you or others around you. That’s an airline staff member’s job or a police officer’s job.

    However, a quiet word to a gate agent or airport security officer along the lines of, “I’m concerned this person may have had too much to drink to be safe” would not be out of line, should you find yourself in the situation again. That way, you can be confident someone whose job it is to react has been made aware.

  4. John Reply
    August 25, 2019 at 10:10 am

    The worst thing to do here is to even get on the radar of a wildly intoxicated man. Will only end in all sorts of drama.

  5. James Reply
    August 25, 2019 at 10:50 am

    He didn’t bother you. Why would you bother him?

    Being heroic by reporting that somebody is drunk? Is being drunk is a crime? Or you simply being snowflake? Much like a person breaking someone else’s car window due to a dog puppet which seems so real and might’ve died suffocated….

    Mind your own bussiness, dude! American on the internet are weird…

    • Ben Reply
      September 27, 2019 at 4:55 am

      @James “Is being drunk a crime”? – Yes.

  6. Jason Reply
    August 25, 2019 at 11:19 am

    I have been in the exactly same situation before and deeply regretted not telling someone and stopping the drunk from getting on my plain. As soon as he boarded, he violently vomited all over two rows of seats. Attempts to clean the vomit were unsuccessful and resulted in a replacement of the plane, leading to over 3-hour delay for many people.

  7. Shawn Reply
    August 25, 2019 at 1:51 pm

    This sounds exactly like a situation that would have cropped up in the bystander intervention training that I took a couple of years ago. I think that you have to ask yourself the very questions that you did, including what could have happened to this guy.

    Actually, I think that this is a pretty easy situation. There were lots of options open to you, some of which were very straightforward. Yes, you could have accosted the man yourself and tried to help him directly, but that approach is fraught with concerns. I think it would have been completely appropriate for you to have discreetly approached a gate agent or flight attendant to alert them to the issue. It would have been in everyone’s best interest.

    Stepping outside social conventions to intervene when there is a potential for some real harm to someone isn’t easy to do. I can’t say that I’m terribly good at it myself. And situations are not always what they seem; one has to tread carefully. But people not involving themselves when the situation warrants is how awful things can sometimes happen in plain sight. It doesn’t necessarily make you a buttinski or a snowflake; it just makes you one human being concerned about the welfare of another. I think that the world could use a little more of that.

  8. JoEllen Reply
    August 25, 2019 at 9:27 pm

    I too would have alerted airline staff or even airport police…….and not because I’m in any hurry to “report” someone for the sake of being some kind of hero or tattletale. I’m thinking better to prevent a serious problem onboard, harm to property or other people. As well, getting someone in authority involved would also be a safeguard from him harming himself…..basically a matter of conscience — mine.

  9. emercycrite Reply
    August 26, 2019 at 12:26 am

    Do nothing and steer well clear.

  10. HPL Reply
    August 26, 2019 at 8:57 am

    “About 15 minutes prior to boarding the last flight of the day, he was stumbling so badly through the airport hallways, I thought he was injured or handicapped. Then I saw his eyes and remembered him getting around just fine at the prior departure gate during disembarkation.” Your initial thought is more prudent, he could have been injured during the time you were NOT observing him. (Not all injuries are readily apparent or visible.)

    “he wasn’t a hazard to others”; absolutely disagree, he was the definition of “hazard to others”. Just because that hazard never created an actual problem does not negate its danger. A drunk driver is still a drunk driver regardless of whether or not they cause an accident. In an emergency he certainly would have been a hazard to others, undoubtedly blocking others ability to egress. Would your actions have been different if he was seated in an exit row? Next to the emergency exit? (We all know airline staff cannot be relied upon to prevent such a passenger from sitting in an exit row.) Matthew recently wrote (about a passenger who apparently sat in the aisle seat of the row in which Matthew was seated in the window seat): “drunk man staggered” and “had another shot of whiskey after we took off then fell asleep for the rest of the flight, snoring loudly.”. It’s entirely plausible that such a passenger was passed out rather than sleeping and would have been problematic, and possibly a hazard and obstruction to others, in an emergency. Matthew also (very astutely) wrote “was slurring his words as he spoke to his friend…and I don’t think he was a stroke victim”.

    “nearly collapse”, “could have fallen face down …and hit his head on a handrail”, “lurched forward”, “slumped over”, “wasn’t able to care for himself”, “didn’t seem to have the capacity to form a coherent conversation” could all be due to something other than alcohol intoxication. Hypoglycemia, other drugs, head injury, neurological disease and stroke most quickly come to mind. As an ER doc, even with the “strong odor of alcoholic beverage on breath”, it should never be assumed that someone is drunk. Unless you have been with the person continuously since they were last fully functional and witnessed them imbibing alcohol to excess and are 100% certain they never fell and hit their head, you cannot be 100% certain they’re drunk. Just one person thought to be drunk, left alone to “sleep it off”, then later found to be comatose or dead due to an occult head injury is one too many. In an Emergency Room, every unexplained alteration of consciousness, regardless of alcoholic beverage on breath, should have (among other things) a glucose check and an immediate Head CT scan.

    Suggest “a quiet word to a gate agent or airport security officer” but NOT “along the lines of, “I’m concerned this person may have had too much to drink to be safe””. Suggest along the lines of “this person may be having a stroke or insulin shock”, an acceptable expression of concern for a possible medical emergency which demands further action by the gate agent or airport security officer.

    Symptomatic intoxication in public is a PUBLIC health problem for any number of reasons.

  11. JR Reply
    August 27, 2019 at 3:31 pm

    It is against FAA regulations for the airline to board an intoxicated passenger. But quite often, nobody realizes that the person is intoxicated until the flight is underway. Next time, I think you should tell the gate agent, flight attendant or airport security.

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