After your in-flight meal, you get comfy for a snooze as the cabin lights dim, but nearby passengers are chatting away.
Perfectly ordinary, you may think, yet such mid-air chatter has escalated into full-blown altercations.
Interestingly, such flare-ups rarely occur on flights to and from India. Cabin crew attribute this to the open and expressive nature of South Asian cultures.
A crew member, who requested anonymity due to corporate rules, said: “Our average passenger is generally friendly and accommodating. I’ve often witnessed them engaging in friendly chats with other passengers, and they don’t complain when others chat.”
But that’s only part of the story. Sociologists point out that many Indian travellers grow up in bustling, multigenerational households where background chatter is constant.
There will be a horde of siblings, cousins, even neighbours, and someone is always talking, teasing, debating or laughing. Silence, in such settings, has never been the default.
In such social environments, people feel less entitled to silence and more inclined to adjust to the collective mood. Which is why a recent incident outside the India corridor felt particularly jarring.
On an AirAsia X flight heading to Chengdu, China, from Kuala Lumpur on July 21 this year, a man seated behind a group of women who were chatting asked them to quiet down so he could have some shuteye.
The women carried on talking, and the male passenger allegedly called the group “stupid” and demanded they “shut up”.
That lit the fuse, and a fight ensued. Naturally, the incident went viral on social media, with footage showing one woman tussling with the man.
In another online clip, a different woman leans over a seat and repeatedly punches the man, who tries to duck behind his tray table.
Cabin crew eventually stepped in.
The South China Morning Post reported that three passengers were arrested while two others were fined by airport police upon landing.
How yelling and fighting will solve noise issues remains unclear.
However, psychologists note that modern society increasingly celebrates individuality, self-expression and the sanctity of personal space, so people with very different social thresholds may clash anywhere – even at 35,000 feet.
That isn’t to say all Indian flights are smooth sailing.
In January 2024, a viral video showed an IndiGo passenger charging at a pilot while the aircraft was still on the ground, delayed by dense fog in northern India.
The passenger was swiftly escorted off the aircraft to face the music.
Then, there are the intoxicated passengers – aviation’s main troublemakers.
While a global tally of alcohol-fuelled incidents on flights is not available, the International Air Transport Association reported that alcohol was a primary contributing factor in many of the 53,538 incidents of unruly passengers in 2024.
A recent incident occurred on March 31, when a 42-year-old Indian national on a Singapore-bound flight became aggressive while intoxicated.
He annoyed other passengers and even grabbed a male crew member’s wrist and threatened to kill him.
Placed in restraints by cabin crew, he was arrested upon landing and subsequently jailed for five weeks.
Many such offenders insist they acted out of character.
Doctors say that this is entirely possible since the cabin’s lower air pressure intensifies alcohol’s effects, impairing judgment and self-control far more quickly than many expect.
This has not saved anyone from facing the consequences of their transgressions.
So isn’t it better to exercise tolerance and moderation than to land in legal trouble and suffer a lifetime of viral notoriety?
tabla@sph.com.sg
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22 Oct 2025 17:40
