New rules for unruly fliers sought

A drunken man gets tackled by a group of off-duty cops in November while trying to storm the cockpit on a flight from Warsaw to Toronto.

An inebriated passenger on a January flight from Iceland to New York tries to grope and choke fellow travelers until crew and passengers bind him with duct tape.

Such incidents are no longer flukes, but rather a trend that has prompted airlines to call for new laws to deal with unruly passengers and other mayhem on international flights.

The number of incidents of unruly passengers has jumped from fewer than 500 in 2007 to more than 6,000 in 2011, according to the International Air Transport Association, the trade group for world airlines, which has been keeping track of the incidents.

In 1963 representatives from 185 countries met in Tokyo to adopt a set of laws that focused on onboard crimes related to hijacking. But the laws are outdated and do not address the kind of bedlam that some passengers provoke, delaying flights and fraying nerves, said Perry Flint, a spokes­man for IATA.

A meeting has been scheduled for March by the International Civil Aviation Organization, a branch of the United Nations, to discuss new rules on how to deal with unruly passengers. A location for the meeting has not been set.

Airline staff will pick tail design

A month before American Airlines announced that it would merge with US Airways to form the world’s largest carrier, American unveiled a new logo and color scheme for its fleet of planes.

Doug Parker, former CEO of US Airways, is in charge of the new American Airlines and announced last week that he is going to let employees vote on the design of the planes.

But to avoid repainting every plane from top to bottom — at a cost of $100,000 to $200,000 — Parker told workers that they can vote only on the tail design: either the red, white and blue stripes or the old red-and-blue "AA" logo with a blue eagle.

Employees have until Jan. 2 to vote.

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Hugo Martin, Los Angeles Times