Passenger Panic Attacks

[Barb-SAN]

Capt. Hutch,
I just finished reading this article http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2007/06/29/penelope-cruz-loses-contr_n_54345.html about Penelope Cruz allegedly having a panic attack on the plane before takeoff, and having to return to the gate and deplane. The episode caused a flight delay of two hours as baggage personnel had to find and remove her luggage.

My question is...do the FA's or pilots receive any training in treating passenger panic attacks? Or is the policy to just let the "agitated" passenger off the plane ASAP (assuming the plane is still on the ground...:tongue: ;) ).

Have you had many instances in your career when passengers have panicked and needed to get off the plane after the doors were closed, and you were taxiing to the runway?

[Captain Hutch]

Barb-San,

good question! :confused: Well, the pilots(at least some of us) don't per se have training related specifically to an agitated passenger, except as related to a possible security incident. However, the basic rule that most of the pilots follow, which must be somewhere in my manuals, is that yes, if after we leave the gate, there is a highly agitated passenger who has some sort of panic attack then we will return to the gate and let him/her off. If we end up sitting on the "tarmac" (a word which I have never seen written anywhere in my manuals) for an extended period of time, I like to "take the pulse" of the passengers by keeping in constant touch with the flight attendants, and if there is a lot of grumbling back there then I might make an early decision to return to the gate. Of course there are a lot of other factors thrown in the mix, like "what's the weather going to do", what the dispatcher wants, are we going to get a reroute, do we need to go back to the gate for fuel, are we trapped on the taxiways such that we can't get back because of all the other airplanes (can easily happen at Midway or La Guardia). One improvement that I have seen over the years is that we are able to take more of the delays at the gate, or maybe I have just figured out a little better how the air traffic control system works. Personally I have gone back to the gate a couple of times in my career to have an agitated passenger taken off. Once I had a passenger removed from the plane when we were about 5 minutes from push back because she cursed at the flight attendant and the flight attendant did not feel comfortable with the situation. I always support my flight attendants to the hilt since they are the ones who have to deal directly with the passengers.

As far as the training that the flight attendants receive about panic attacks, I will check with some of my flight attendant friends and give you a better answer.

Hutch :)