The Getaway: Booted Off the Plane: How Normal Is That?

Last month, a group of high school students and their chaperons were ordered off a flight to Atlanta for refusing to sit down and turn off their cellphones. In May, six friends were removed from a flight to Las Vegas allegedly for talking loudly. In April, a 340-pound man said he was told to leave a Denver-bound plane because of his size.

Every few weeks we seem to hear about passengers being escorted off planes for the sorts of infractions that once only sent you to the principal's office. Is this normal? Might you someday find yourself being taken off a plane for being uncooperative, kicking a seat back or caviling with a flight attendant (all real reasons that you can be removed)?

The number of passengers classified as "unruly" cannot be accurately quantified. The Federal Aviation Administration tracks only the incidents that crew members choose to report. And its database does not include security violations (the Transportation Security Administration handles those). That said, the number of unruly passengers reported to the F.A.A. since 1995 (the earliest date in the online database) appears to be at an all-time low. There were 129 such passengers in 2012, down from 140 in 2011. The high was in 2004, when crew members reported 330 unruly passengers.

And then there's the data from the International Air Transport Association. The trade group said its most recent available figures show that reported instances of unruliness increased about 29 percent between 2009 and 2010 (the F.A.A.'s figures show a decline in that period). Whatever the numbers, the association and flight attendants say it is a continuing problem.

"Which is why we were so outraged with the thought of knives coming back onboard," said Veda Shook, international president of the Association of Flight Attendants, referring to the T.S.A. decision, since rescinded, to allow small knives in cabins.

"The plane in my view is just a microcosm of where we're at in society today," Ms. Shook said. Gone are the days of half-empty aircraft and unhurried travel. "Now the planes are packed. Everybody's got to wait in lines." That makes it imperative that passengers follow instructions.

The Association of Flight Attendants refers to its union members as "aviation's first responders," and indeed their actions can save lives. Consider the flight attendants who helped evacuate the Asiana Airlines plane that crash-landed in San Francisco this month, or the Alaska Airlines attendants who in May restrained a passenger after he allegedly tried to open an emergency exit row window during the plane's descent into Portland, Ore.

Yet consumer advocates and passengers who have been ordered off planes for seemingly petty infractions think some flight attendants abuse their power and that the broad language airlines use to define unruly behavior makes it difficult for passengers to know how to behave and, if necessary, defend themselves.

Ms. Shook said removing passengers from planes is a last recourse. However, there are consequences for those who do not follow a rule like turning off portable electronic devices.

"For us that's the biggest challenge," Ms. Shook said. "That is where we're seeing some unruly behavior." Some passengers have the attitude that "those rules might be for everybody but me."

A passenger might not think refusing to shut off a phone is a big deal, but not adhering to a simple request on the ground suggests that you might not be cooperative in a more serious situation.

"If they refuse to turn off their phone," Ms. Shook said, "we don't want to predict what would happen in flight. It could be far worse if you're up in the air."

On the ground, passengers can be turned over to airport authorities. In the air, the plane might have to be diverted or the passenger restrained.