Unruly passengers are posing a growing threat to the safety of commercial aircraft with an increase in safety reports about passenger behaviour filed by pilots last year, according to the Irish Aviation Authority (IAA).
New figures published by the IAA show flight crews reported 298 incidents involving unruly or difficult passengers onboard aircraft during 2022.
In its annual safety performance review for 2022, the IAA said disruptive passengers had now become the second-most common safety concern reported by pilots compared to pre-Covid times when they represented the seventh-highest risk.
Last year’s total of 298 incidents involving unruly passengers compares to the combined total of 216 similar incidents over the previous two years.
The report highlights how approximately 100 incidents involving disruptive passengers on Irish aircraft in 2022 were classified as posing a medium risk.
The IAA said the threat posed by difficult passengers had been identified by the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) earlier this year as an emerging risk for the 2023 summer season which led to it launching an awareness campaign in June.
“The conspicuous emergence of this issue on the ramp up of operations post-Covid has been observed by other member states and EASA,” the IAA stated.
Bird strikes
The latest annual safety review by the IAA also confirms that bird strikes continue to pose the biggest risk to the safety of commercial aircraft in Ireland.
A total of 1,343 incidents of bird strikes were reported by pilots in 2022, accounting for almost 1 in 5 of all reports of safety issues last year.
While the vast majority of incidents involving bird-strikes last year were categorised as low-risk, around 150 incidents were rated as posing a medium risk.
The IAA noted that the threat of bird strikes has been increasing since the pandemic due to the “increased presence of wildlife on aerodromes.”
Bird strikes are considered a serious issue in global air travel as one was responsible for one of the most famous incidents in aviation history when it forced a US Airways flight to make an emergency landing on the Hudson River in New York in January 2009.
All 155 passengers and crew on the aircraft survived in a rescue which was dramatised in the 2016 movie, Sully, featuring Tom Hanks in the lead role of the chief pilot, Chesley Sullenburger.
The third most common safety concern reported last year were windshears and microbursts which can lead to sudden, rapid changes in flying conditions with 239 incidents logged.
The latest IAA figures show flight crews reported 186 incidents of interference from laser beams last year – up from 175 in 2021.
Pilot fatigue
Pilots also filed 149 reports over concern about fatigue last year.
A recent report by the European Cockpit Association, the representative body of over 40,000 pilots in Europe, found 4 out of 10 Irish pilots claimed they usually did not have adequate time to recover from fatigue between duties.
In addition, almost two-thirds said they did not believe the risk of fatigue was well managed by their airlines.
The latest IAA safety review shows that pilots also reported concern about 35 incidents relating to lightning strikes last year and 36 incidents of encounters with turbulence.
The IAA recorded a total of four non-fatal accidents involving Irish-registered commercial aircraft last year – unchanged on the figure in 2021.
All accidents related to passengers suffering an injury during disembarkation of an aircraft.
Overall, pilots on Irish airlines and Irish-registered aircraft submitted a total of 7,532 mandatory occurrence reports on safety-related issues last year as a result of almost 615,000 flights.
The number of reports filed last year was more than the combined total of the previous two years.
They represented a report of a safety incident in relation to approximately 1.2% of all commercial flights.
The IAA said the strong reporting rates of safety issues indicated that airlines “continue to deliver a maturing reporting culture despite the challenges experienced by aviation staff in the return to new normal operations.”
The IAA said the chances of being on a flight operated by an Irish registered aircraft that experienced a safety occurrence remains very low.
It added: “Over 98% of these flights passed off without any safety occurrence that required reporting to the IAA and over 99.99% of these flights passed off without being involved in an accident or serious incident.”
The IAA pointed out that the vast majority of mandatory occurrence reports submitted to it are classified as “low risk.”
However, it added: “It remains important to monitor these events to ensure they remain under control.”
