HOLIDAYS: Alcohol and planes.

Drunkenness is still causing problems on flights. A simple solution to this ever increasing problem could be to stop serving excess alcohol in the airport and on the plane itself.  

 On my flight home a few weeks ago I had a young man sitting next to me. He was rather upset about the choice of seats he and his girlfriend had been given and he became quite agitated.

To calm him down the stewards offered him a drink. He chose red wine and was served a glass.
As soon as he found out that he could have as many of these as he wanted he proceeded to drink at least 5 full glasses in the space of an hour!

Now don’t get me wrong, he didn’t become aggressive or anything like that; he was really quite pleasant to talk to. Unfortunately as he continued to drink red wine by the glassful, things began to go downhill pretty quickly, which as a seating partner left a lot to be desired.

First came the hiccupping- nothing to complain about you’re thinking but this soon turned into belching; a trip to the toilet, an in-flight meal and three more glasses of red wine and the young man was now ready to sleep.

Basically he just passed out; slumped next to me with arms akimbo and encroaching on my seat space. No amount of prodding or poking could wake him so I resigned myself to being squashed until he woke up.

But then the problems really began. I can laugh about it now and truth be told I did see the humour at the time but after a cheesy pasta meal as well as the wine he began to fart!

As you can imagine these were ripe! Coupled with the pig like snores, you should be able to sympathise with my situation. It was so bad that it was funny and I found myself giggling every time a noise emitted from his body.

However, the stewards were lucky that he fell asleep and that I didn’t cause a fuss, but not everyone would have been able to shrug it off. For some people this behaviour would have spoilt their flight experience as he could have become belligerent and caused more of a disturbance. This situation all stemmed from the introduction of copious alcohol at the beginning of the flight.

So it all comes back to the problem of excess alcohol and planes. Is it really necessary on a plane journey!  I know what my vote would be; what do you think?

Thought for the day:  There is always time to drink champagne and dance on the table. (but not on a plane!)
 
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