Air Rage

Dry air, cramped conditions and long flights can make you uncomfortable. But are they enough to make you crazy? According to the results of a questionnaire sent out by the International Air Transport Association, incidents of air rage — that much-discussed propensity of a few passengers to go bonkers in the sky — increased by almost 500% in the last half of the 1990s. In the past two years, at least three people have died as a result of violent actions by enraged fellow travelers.

"The aircraft cabin is an unusual environment," says Robert Bor, an aviation...