Singapore
Airlines battles in-flight crime
South China Morning Post.
April 29, 2000
BARRY PORTER in Singapore
THE ''Singapore Girl'', with her hour-glass figure and
flowing batik sarong, cuts an attractive image 9,000 metres up in the sky
far too attractive it would seem for some male passengers.
Singapore Airlines reported 22 sexual offences against its air hostesses on board its aircraft last year.
''This is a worrying trend,'' said a senior official from the airline, famous for using pretty, real-life air hostesses in advertisements to lure passengers.
The Singapore carrier has also reported a sharp rise in unruly behaviour, especially drunkenness. Crew reported 103 such cases last year, up from 80 the previous year.
''The worrying thing is that the number of incidents just keeps on going up every year,'' Alex de Silva, the airline's vice-president for safety, security and environment told a conference in the republic.
us98 There were 50 cases of drunken and disorderly behaviour last year, up from 41 in 1998. Passengers not only laid hands on crew, but attacked fellow travellers. There were 27 such cases last year.us100
Singapore courts have regularly jailed, fined or caned passengers for unruly behaviour in the past.
However, Mr de Silva called for legal loopholes to be plugged to allow Singapore to deal with such offenders more firmly. Some offenders have escaped without punishment.
Australia, Britain, Canada and the United States have introduced laws that allow authorities to use their powers to fight inflight crime whether it occurs on a state-registered or foreign aircraft and regardless of whether the offence was committed in the airspace of the state in which it lands.
In Singapore, the maximum sentence for endangering an aircraft's safety is S$5,000 (HK$22,800) and a year in jail.
Last year, Sanil Shetty Kumar, 38, was jailed for six months and fined S$1,000 for turning violent on a Singapore Airlines flight and threatening to open an exit door while flying from Los Angeles to Singapore.
The carrier said it was working with the International Air Transport Association to find solutions to the increase in air rage and sexual assaults.
''This is an industry-wide problem,'' said airline spokeswoman Wendy Wong.