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The secret side of flights/Drunk passengers, arrests, incidents: What secret text messages between pilots and control centers reveal

2026-02-02 20:00:24Lifestyle SHKRUAR NGA REDAKSIA VOX
The secret side of flights/Drunk passengers, arrests, incidents: What secret
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Short, coded and often shocking messages. The ACARS system shows the invisible side of air travel: incidents, emergencies and police interventions in the sky.

A passenger who demands alcohol and forces the plane to divert. Toilets that don't work, phones stuck in seats, unruly passengers, and arrests that are made as soon as the plane touches down. These are not movie scenes, but part of the daily life of air travel, documented through ACARS messages.

On January 21, on a flight from Toronto to Cayo Coco (Cuba), the crew notified the operations center that a passenger in seat 8D was becoming uncontrollable.

"She asks for alcohol and says there will be a crisis if we don't give it to her," the message says. The plane is forced to divert to the US to disembark the passenger.

The next day, on a Boeing 777 from London to Singapore, unusual problems are reported: the coffee machines are not working, while a seat tray is blocked, with the passenger's tablet inside.

On January 26, on a plane departing from Frankfurt, the pilots receive a delicate notification: two passengers are being forcibly returned to Colombia, after being rejected by German authorities.

"They must be handed over to local authorities in Bogota," the cockpit screens display.

ACARS (Aircraft Communications Addressing and Reporting System) is the automatic communication system between aircraft and ground centers, via radio or satellite. It is used for everything from flight coordination and technical problems, to medical emergencies and safety notifications.

Among the over 30,000 ACARS messages analyzed over the course of a month, many are related to police intervention.

On the Zurich–Hong Kong flight, a passenger reports a theft. The ground control center instructs the crew to keep all passengers in their seats, as the police will search them upon arrival.

In other cases, unruly passengers, smoking in the toilet, or aggressive behavior that endangers flight safety are reported.

On some flights, arrests are organized in secret to avoid panic.

On the Delhi-London route, the crew is instructed not to inform the passenger that they are going to be arrested and to ensure that everyone else remains seated after landing.

Another operation takes place on the Bangkok-London flight, where police arrest two people as soon as the plane arrives, without first notifying the other passengers.

ACARS messages also document health emergencies, including a flight attendant displaying worrisome symptoms during a Seattle-Incheon flight, as well as more common incidents, such as passengers falling ill on board.

A suspected case of sexual assault is reported on a flight from Jakarta to Abu Dhabi. The airline activates security procedures, but the passenger then decides not to file a formal complaint.

With around 14 million people flying every day around the world, airplanes are a “metropolis in the sky.” And when something goes wrong, ACARS messages become the first line of incident reporting, revealing a reality that passengers rarely see./ Corriere della Sera


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