Flight attendants and gate agents look for several signs in determining whether you are fit to fly and have a lawful duty to cut you off or even deny you boarding if you appear intoxicated.
How Flight Attendants Guage Whether You Are Intoxicated
Transporting an intoxicated passenger on a US commercial flight is a Federal Aviation Regulation (FAR) violation. As such, airlines have developed systems to identify when a passenger appears intoxicated.
United Airlines, for example, uses a “Traffic Light System” to gauge whether a flyer has had one too many:
- Green Light – normal or near normal
- Sociable
- Relaxed
- Happy
- Yellow Light – exhibits effect of alcohol
- Reduced inhibitions
- Impaired judgment
- Talking or laughing loudly
- Being overly friendly
- Arguing or baiting
- Use of foul language
- Increasing alcohol use
- Careless with money
- Possible smell of alcohol
- Red Light – appearance of intoxication
- Moving in slow motion
- Need time to respond
- Glassy-eyed
- Losing train of thought
- Irrational statements
- Spilling drinks
- Walking awkwardly
- Stumbling or falling
- Unable to sit upright
- Slurred speech
- Possible smell of alcohol
United reminds both flight attendants and gate agents that they must be on top of passengers who may intoxicated:
Customers commonly enjoy an alcoholic drink before boarding a flight. However, transporting an intoxicated customer on our flights is a Federal Aviation Regulation (FAR) violation, and we must do our part to remain compliant. Flight attendants and Customer Service representatives (CSR) are jointly responsible for recognizing if a customer appears intoxicated.
The focus tends to be on alcohol because it is so readily available at airports and onboard, but rising THC levels in marijuana are also leading to most instances of cannabis intoxication.
Intoxicated passengers often make a spectacle of themselves and since the human body may react differently to alcohol at 35,000 feet than on the ground (due to the lower oxygen levels at high altitudes), it is advisable to carefully consume adult beverages onboard.
How would you classify a certain person on this blog who tends to get frisky when he’s had too many appletinis and starts soliciting any nearby male wearing MAGA apparel?
Well, best to start with “Stop drinking so appletinis, Chi”.
Any psychotropic drug causes severe aberrations in behavior given the dehydration conditions of flying along with the volatile chemicals of engine bleed air,cramped seat arrangements,lack of food service and constant social media bombardment of ideas encouraging people to let out any emotional outburst.
List seems reasonable if not weaponized.
Example of weaponization…
Asian or Hispanic American man on a business trip involving a personal lawsuit, worried, quiet. In reality, no threat, did not consume alcohol in the past week.
Troublemaker FA who also expelled Matthew from a flight for taking seat photos:
Asian or Hispanic man fails criteria…
Yellow light, careless with money by buying too many snacks and not eating them, but shoving them in the seat pocket
Red light, needs time to respon̈d when, if fact, he is absorbed in thought.
Conclusion, passenger is threatening and took photos of seat (in reality, his hobby), so kick him off the plane and document yellow and red light violations.
Probably extremely rare but plausible with tens of millions of United passengers
This is why a national no fly list based on one airline complaint is dangerous
While obnoxious and combative behavior onboard has obviously become a concern, people also forget a big reason they deny boarding to intoxicated people is if there is an emergency and you’re passed out or unable to move you could quickly become a major hazard during an evacuation.
Makes me wonder how they deal with disabled passengers though? At least they know in advanced where they’re seated in order to assist if evacuation. But are people just supposed to climb over them? Alright end tangent haha
Able-bodied passengers have to evacuate first. It also happens in hospitals – during a fire or other evacuation, walking patients leave under their own steam, patients who require assistance of one person are helped next, and the bed-bound leave last.
There’s no reason for 100 passengers to die from smoke inhalation because a wheelchair-bound pax wants to get off first.
I’m not sure that stoners are a threat to anything beyond a pizza. I don’t recall any instances of people smoking too much then holding up a convenience store.
I’ve personally always been able to drink roughly twice as much in the air as on the ground
AA6232 had to divert to Phoenix after a case of ‘cannabis intoxication’ occurred onboard. According to flight attendant Mary Wilkins, “I knew something was wrong when the single male passenger in first class requested a third item from the snack box. Those snacks are so disgusting, you’d have to be lit off of the stickiest of the icky to even think about going back for thirds.”
Upon landing in Phoenix, the passenger, Daryl Thistle 31 of Pomona CA was interviewed by Phoenix Airport Police and released when they realized he was no longer in possession of any cannabis. Mr. Thistle stated that he had consumed all of his edibles before proceeding through security at LAX.
An American Airlines representative stated that Mr. Thistle had been rebooked on a flight the following morning as he had expressed wanting to “check out one of those dank new dispensaries in Tempe” since he was “Shanghaied in the desert.” AA6232 landed in Denver without further incident 2 hours and 37 minutes behind schedule.
* lit off the stickiest of the icky *
Yikes.