United Airlines flight UA 2731 from Newark to Denver was delayed 4 hours and 43 minutes on Friday – slightly longer than the actual travel time of the flight.

All passengers on the Airbus A321neo nearly had to be removed from the aircraft when a “clearly..intoxicated” man refused to leave. All the airline wanted was assurance that he would “behave and not cause any issues on the flight” but he was unable to offer that assurance. That’s when another passenger stepped in.

On the plane – clearly slurring words & intoxicated when talking to the supervisor – who told him “his behavior was rude and unacceptable”. Supervisor was EXTREMELY kind and patient asking him if he would behave and not cause any issues on the flight, and he refused.

Supervisor left, came back for one more chance, he still would not say yes. After announcing we all would have to deplane, people got quite upset, and eventually through some kind coersion from one passenger he left on his own (in the video).

UA 2731 Newark > Denver passenger kicked off for unruly behavior
byu/alphaskins inunitedairlines

This reminds me of when I was 18 and drinking with friends one night in Tijuana. I was an undergrad at UCLA at the time, and we’d head south because we weren’t yet legal drinking age in the States. You’d park on the U.S. side of the border and walk over, and only needed your drivers license as ID back then. One night I had too much to drink. The U.S. official on the way back simply asked “are you a citizen?” but I could not answer. A friend told me, “Gary just say yes” and I could only say “she said say yes.” Eventually they let me back in. So I did better than this passenger.

Inflight incidents reached all-time highs during the pandemic, when passengers were required to wear masks and mask-wearing became political. There were fewer people traveling then, but more flashpoints of confrontation than ever before.

United Airlines handled these incidents better than most. This was probably the legacy of 2017’s David Dao passenger-dragging incident, after which the airline’s crew received de-escalation training. United flight attendants would write up non-compliant passengers, and the airline would deal with the issue after the flight (for instance, putting people on their banned passenger list). American Airlines, in contrast, would divert flights more often.

However passenger incidents remain elevated compared to before the pandemic. I believe some of this is the smaller percentage of business travelers onboard compared to the Before Times. But I also think some of it is reduced staffing at the gate to save money. Gate agents don’t spend as much time as they used to, paying attention to customers, which means fewer problematic passengers get identified prior to boarding.

While passenger incidents are almost always the fault of the badly behaving passenger, “what’s different” from a causality standpoint is likely on the airlines.