Keeping Order in the Air

NEW YORK, Nov. 26, 2006 — -- Emily Gillette was breast feeding her young daughter before takeoff when a flight attendant ordered her off the plane for refusing to cooperate.

"She walks up with a blanket and says, 'You need to cover up,'" Gillette recalled. "And I said, 'No thank you, I'm fine,' and she said, and I quote, 'You are offending me.'"

Gillette and her husband were escorted off the flight and re-booked the next day.

In a post-9/11 world, there are new questions about how flight attendants are wielding their power.

"Every single airline needs to be training all the cabin crew members in the nuances of the law, and exactly how they should go to the greatest extent that they can," ABC News aviation consultant John Nance said. "And that kind of training is not being done today."

Growing crowds are adding stress to both passengers and airline employees. Since 9/11, there is little tolerance for things once ignored.

In a recent incident in Minneapolis, six Muslim community leaders were kicked off a U.S. Airways flight after witnesses saw them reciting evening prayers before boarding and speaking in Arabic once on board.

"We are Americans," one of the men said after the incident.

But flight attendants say they are the ones who must make hard decisions and keep order on packed planes.

"You're in a confined space for a little amount of time and you only want to protect yourself," said flight attendant Shawn Roche. "You want to protect the people around you."

"We can tell the captain something makes us feel uncomfortable," added Michelle Reaves. "That's pretty much all we need to kick somebody off the plane."

Passengers may be getting the message. Although several seemingly minor incidents have gained media attention, the number of unruly incidents is actually down for 2006. There have been fewer than 80 incidents so far this year. That's down from a peak of 204 just two years ago.