to remove statues honouring civil war leaders who fought to defend slavery, saying that america's culture and history were being ripped apart. he said the controversial monuments were beautiful and would be greatly missed. plans to take down a statue in virginia last weekend led to violent clashes in which a woman was killed. now on bbc news, panorama. looking forward to your summer holiday abroad? better hope you're not stuck on a flight with this lot. on panorama tonight, we investigate the rise in drunk and disorderly passengers, and the chaos they are bringing to uk flights. when people were getting on the plane, they were really clearly very drunk. a panorama survey of uk cabin crew reveals the scale of our problem with booze in the skies. and other colleagues who've been punched,

kicked, and one of them was head—butted by a passenger. we go undercover to expose the truth about alcohol sales at uk airports. they are making it very, very readily available. (bleep) and we ask whether subsidising cheap flights through alcohol sales is leaving passengers and crew with a nasty hangover. more than 2 million flights take off from the uk every year. most are uneventful, but some passengers cause problems even before takeoff. june the 21st, wednesday afternoon.

passengers at manchester airport were waiting to board an easyjet flight to antalya in turkey. it was my summer holiday with my boyfriend, so, yeah, i was pretty excited. before we even boarded the plane, there was a party of four. they were very, very drunk, and loud and disruptive. the flight took off. almost immediately, passengers and crew became increasingly disturbed by the drunken behaviour. about 25 minutes into the flight, one of the two passengers started to get extremely abusive. she was shouting at the crew. who are the stewards to tell her she can't drink any more? she was on her holiday. she kept swearing and kicking off, and it was escalating. i was more concerned about my immediate family because they were getting very distressed. eventually the stewards did manage to confiscate the alcohol... a litre bottle of vodka.

..probably about a third left. the women's behaviour forced the crew to divert to sta nsted airport. having delayed other passengers by three hours, the women were removed by police, and received penalty notices for public order offences. it's embarrassing. really is embarrassing. planes are only diverted when the disruption is so extreme that the crew can't carry out their duties and ensure passenger safety. this police footage shows the arrest of a drunk, abusive passenger after his behaviour caused his flight to be diverted to gatwick. he was jailed for nine months for offences including assault. it has been even worse. drunk passengers threatening to kill or open plane doors and even attempts to enter the cockpit. drunk passengers threatening to kill

or open plane doors and even attempts to enter the cockpit. arrests of passengers suspected of being drunk on a flight or at a uk airport have risen by 50% in the past year. panorama contacted all 20 police forces with a major uk airport on their patch. the 18 that responded had made a total of 387 arrests. these alcohol—fuelled incidents are now being captured by holidaymakers armed with smartphones. being drunk on a flight

is a criminal offence which can land you in prison. so why do so many of us hit the bar, whatever the time, as soon as we get to the airport? baroness hayter is founding director of alcohol concern. the labour peer is also vice—chair of the group on alcohol abuse and has long held misgivings about its sale at airports. the way airports now work and the way they make their money is basically expecting passengers to spend a lot of money while they are there. the biggest thing that happens as you go is alcohol. cash spent on booze helps keep the price of air travel down, but has it now become too readily available?

to find out for myself what's really going on, i'm heading to the airport. i'm meeting baroness hayter at gatwick to catch an early—morning flight to barcelona and to do some secret filming with my smartphone. hello. nice to see you. early morning... very early. what's the time, six o'clock? i know. i don't normally do this! £1 in every £5 spent on duty—free in gatwick is on alcohol. the first thing is, after the loos, the pub. the red lion. and you've never been to the pub at six o'clock in the morning, have you? never! it's 6am. many people in this bar are boozing before breakfast. so i've counted six pints already. and a couple more bellinis. make that seven. a glass of wine over there. it's six o'clock in the morning. the reason alcohol can be sold at airports this early is, once you are through security, licensing laws governing everywhere else don't apply.

if you go half a mile outside of gatwick airport, you couldn't go and buy alcohol there, in a pub or anywhere else. now, why is this different? as well as bars, cafes and restaurants serving drinks, gatwick, like most uk airports, has vip lounges open from as early as four o'clock. so, for an entrance fee of around £25, what do you get? you serve yourself, and you can drink as much as you like in the three—hour window. you serve yourself, and you can drink as much as you like in the three—hour window. no, you go first. we can drink as much as we want.

we've just met some really nice people but they've just said their flights are delayed, so they could be here two, three hours, and they could have had, i don't know, £50 of drinks, something like that, and just keep going. finally, before making our way to the gate, the baroness and i are offered free spirits. that was our tour of gatwick airport. we are on our way to barcelona. from what you've just seen, would you say the airport is responsibly selling alcohol? no, they are selling it to children, selling it out of licensing hours, they are selling it without asking how much people have already drunk. they are making it very, very readily available. this apparent free—for—all seems likely to be contributing

to the steady rise in drunken passengers boarding planes. but many in the aviation industry were reluctant to talk to panorama about the problem. we did persuade serving cabin crew to speak to us, but only on the condition we kept their identity hidden. i've found countless litre bottles of vodka. we find bottles of jaegermeister, bottles of bacardi, bottles of gin. i took three miniatures off a lady. she said, "they told me i can drink these on—board the aircraft when i was in the duty—free shop." i've gone into the back galley. i've been cornered by somebody, trying to kiss me, making sexual moves on me, having to push them away. it can go from anything, from banter to sexual assault really. and other colleagues

who been punched, kicked, and one of them was head—butted by a passenger. it's definitely getting worse. so to what extent do their experiences represent what's really going on in the skies? with the help of unite, the union, panorama has surveyed 4,000 uk cabin crew. we've learned the overwhelming majority have witnessed drunken, disruptive passenger behaviour most in the past year. we also found that more than half of cabin crew who responded to our survey had either experienced or witnessed verbal, physical or sexual abuse by drunk passengers on board the uk flight. some airlines are reluctant to admit publicly this is a problem, but behind the scenes, most are training their staff to deal with it. where's this drink?

where is it? don't tell me, you... can you sit down please? i ordered a drink five minutes ago. mark hardy from securicare is a specialist in aviation conflict management. and then we are going to turn your hips and neck at the same time and sweep off, 0k? one in five of the cabin crew who responded to our survey had been physically abused during the uk flight, so realistic training is crucial. get us a drink. where's the crew? there's an obvious problem developing with at least one of the passengers. he is kicking off. excuse me, sir. what's the problem?

i want another drink. i've been waiting ages. how much have i paid for this flight? would you like a glass of water in the meantime? do i look like the kind of guy who wants a glass of water? we want you to have a lovely holiday that you need to calm down because you are disrupting other passengers on the flight. it's intimidating and this is just a training exercise. imagine being on a flight where you can't get off and it's happening for real. i imagine it would be pretty scary and a lot to deal with. despite the scale of the problem, we struggled to get an airline to appear on camera. but low—cost operatorjet2 did offer to speak to us. the leeds—based firm flies 50,000 passengers a day. i think we need to take a stand. we will issue a sanction to a customer. we will stop somebody from flying home if necessary and we have issued some lifetime bans. a year ago, jet2 also stopped serving alcohol on flights taking up before 8am. it may only be limited step but they are the only uk airline to carry out any kind

of ban on booze. do you think airports doing enough? i think they can do more. i think the retailers can do more as well. two litre steins of beer, mixers and miniatures in duty—free shops, which can only be there for one reason. they are items that are not sold on the high street. to drink on the plane? yep. diversions caused by drunken behaviour are rare but when they happen they don'tjust inconvenience passengers, they also cost airlines tens of thousands of pounds. the worst routes, i would say, are alicante, ibiza, la palma. they are on an aircraft and it's not a bar, it's not a nightclub. that's why a lot of crew end up hating the job and they will quit, because theyjust don't get paid enough to deal with this. when i was walking through the airport in the morning and the bars were busy, i'd say 80% of the tables had

alcohol on them at 4:45am. what do you fancy drinking? i'll have a cappuccino please. injune, laura hodge was about to fly from manchester airport to ibiza. the former cabin crew manager, off on her own holidays, noticed the drinking of a lot of her fellow passengers was getting out of hand before departure. the atmosphere in the airport was a bit like a party atmosphere, i would say. downing drinks, counting down, cheering each other on. the rya nair flight was delayed by an hour. laura says the airline announced it would be a dry flight, serving no alcohol on board. passengers who didn't want to miss out didn't have to go too far. we noticed that there was a bar right next to the gate, which looked maybe like a temporary bar, or something that wasn't normally there, and they were serving beer, predominantly, i remember. they're serving booze right next to you? right next to the gate, yeah.

so completely mixed message. it's just crazy. when the flight did eventually take off, laura says the airline did serve alcohol on—board, despite saying they wouldn't, and the drunken behaviour became even worse. when people were getting on the plane, they were clearly very drunk. in my peripheral vision out the corner of my eye, i could see one of the ladies was obviously sat on the guy's knee, doing stuff you probably shouldn't be doing on a plane. the women in this video, which went viral, admitted being drunk, but denied having sex. an increasing number of drunken incidents in the sky have been hitting headlines, often captured on smartphones, but the evidence isn't just anecdotal. the civil aviation authority, responsible for flight safety in the uk, says that, in the last five years, disruptive passenger behaviour has seen a sixfold increase, with industry experts believing this rise is mostly down to alcohol. palma is the majorcan capital

and heart of the balearic islands, which includes ibiza. local politician and alcohol campaign leader david abril believes too many british tourists are landing here drunk. if there's a delay because of an incident in airports like glasgow or manchester, it creates other delays here in majorca. so it can collapse the airport, but i think we have to act notjust for that but because of all of the problems created by this kind of tourism. just last month, the local department of tourism

asked the spanish government and the eu for new laws to address the problem. so you want a ban on alcohol on flights from the uk, coming to the balearic islands? not only from the uk, we have the same problem with flights from germany. what punishments would you like to see put in place for people who break the rules if they came in? they must be high—flyers, because at the end these kind of people don't understand any other thing than really getting punished by paying a lot of money. fewer drunks on uk flights would mean more peaceful journeys for other passengers and aviation staff, but it's too late for ally murphy, who recently quit herjob as cabin crew manager for virgin airlines. this is my last everflight... she often worked on long—haul flights, but after 14 years of service that drunk and disruptive behaviour of passengers played a key part in her decision to leave. people just see us as

barmaids in the sky. i was pulled into an upper—class bed by a passenger who was feeling particularly lucky, i guess. they would touch your breasts or your bum or your legs, i've had hands going up my skirt before. it's rage inducing and you shouldn't have to deal with that. there are two words to describe that — sexual harassment and it's completely unacceptable. have you ever reported incidents like that? i guess i never reported it to the police because, sadly, and this is completely wrong and only occurring to me now, you kind ofjust accept it as part of the job and it shouldn't be. the link between alcohol and disruptive passenger behaviour isn't news to the uk aviation industry, which believes it has found a solution. only a year ago a voluntary code was introduced which most of the big airlines and airports signed up to.

the code of practice on disruptive passengers suggests that airports and airlines should work together to limit disruptive behaviour and sell alcohol responsibly. so in the year since it was introduced, how have things changed ? well, not significantly, according to our industry insiders. the code of conduct isn't working. it's all well and good for the home office to say that it is, they're sat there in their offices behind their desks. we're on the frontline and seeing these incidents on a daily, weekly and monthly basis. it's the alcohol mainly and the duty—free that's the significant problem. i have not noticed any improvement in any passenger behaviour within the last year whatsoever. none at all. one in four cabin crew who responded to our survey were unaware

of the code of practice. of those who had heard of it, less than a quarter thought it was working in reducing drunken passenger behaviour. we've also been told by industry insiders that in practice not much has changed. i'm travelling to manchester to see for myself and, once again, i'm secretly filming with my smartphone. manchester airport is signed up to the voluntary code of practice, which commits them to the responsible selling of alcohol to prevent or manage disruptive behaviour. so, just arrived at manchester airport, made my way through security. first thing on my right is a starbucks. hang on a minute, beer. pinot grigio, a bit of champagne, peroni.

that's a shocker, a beer in starbucks. never had that before. it is 5:30pm and five outlets are selling alcohol in this airport terminal. four of them are cafes that wouldn't sell it on the high street. because licensing laws don't apply once you are through security, any shop can sell alcohol. they surely can't be selling beer in the pasty shop. and they are. like everyone else, to get to my departure gate i have no choice but to go through the duty—free shop. every type of alcohol you could want. the store is owned by world duty free, which sells around £365 million worth of wines and spirits at uk airports every year. why buy one when you can buy two? and before i'm even halfway through the store, i'm being offered spirits for free. coconut rum.

it's a bit early, but... there's a variety of alcohol promotions. miniatures, many with a double shot of spirits, are on a multi—buy offer near the tills. four for three offers on miniatures before you get to the main counter where you pay for stuff. hang on a minute, these are normal miniatures, that we're used to seeing, but the ones next to them are massive. they're not miniature! to me it is hard to see why anyone would buy miniatures, unless it's to drink on the plane, but the code of conduct says that staff must advise passengers not to do so. although i've been verbally advised not to drink my purchases on the plane, in reality there's nothing stopping me. i mean, that is a joke. i specifically asked her if i could drink on the plane and she said, no, i wasn't allowed to.

then she has given me a bag that is completely unsealed. how can you stop someone from drinking these? at the next duty—free shop the advice about drinking purchased alcohol on a flight is very different. this advice directly contravenes the code of practice, which this airport is signed up to. since the year 2000, duty—free and travel retail sales in europe have doubled, as the price of our flights has come down. how big a role does alcohol play in keeping flights in the air? the cost of flying pretty much anywhere is probably about half what it was 20 years ago. therefore, the airlines and airports have to make money somewhere and they make a lot of money from the sale of drink either at a bar or at a duty—free shop.

booze now accounts for around 20% of total duty—free sales at uk airports. so is the rise in drunken behaviour, which we've uncovered, linked to the increasing importance of revenue from alcohol? i took our investigation findings to the body representing the airport industry. we've conducted a large survey of uk cabin crew. we found a significant proportion blamed drunk and disruptive behaviour on airports not selling alcohol responsibly. i don't accept that the airports don't sell alcohol responsibly. the sale of alcohol, per se, is not a problem, it's the misuse of it and drinking to excess and then behaving badly. the voluntary code of conduct says one thing, but the messaging in your airport experience is very different. at gatwick airport, we specifically asked staff if we could drink a lot and they told us, "go for it".

right, 0k, well, you can drink a lot. but is that responsible? we're talking about the responsible selling of alcohol. paying £20, £30, given a three hour window to drink as much as you want and told to go for it. i think what we are encouraging is that all of our lounge staff, if they are airport lounge staff, sometimes they're airline lounges, they are a mix of providers, but they should be saying to drink responsibly. within a duty—free shop at manchester airport, we asked those selling spirits, including miniatures, if we could consume the alcohol on the plane. 0ne told us, unofficially i think you will get away with it. what's your response to that? you would need to talk to world duty free, but my view is they shouldn't have said that because it's not acceptable to be drinking your alcohol on the plane. so of course the staff either haven't been trained properly or are behaving irresponsibly. is that worrying?

of course it's worrying and that's why we are working with retailers and staff to make sure they do understand what the rules are. world duty free says it displays: but the insiders we've spoken to believe the voluntary code isn't enough to police the industry, citing the lack of alcohol licensing laws at airports for the virtual free—for—all when it comes to pre—flight drinking. four months ago a house of lords select committee, looking into licensing laws, published a report which said that airports need to be brought into line. the government disagreed. the home office claimed it would be

too difficult for their inspectors to get through security to inspect bars and restaurants to make sure they're complying with the licensing law. they said there was no need because the voluntary code was working. committee chair and conservative peer baroness mcintosh is baffled by this position. we didn't hear one shred of evidence to show that the voluntary code was either working now or had any possible vestige of success in working any time soon. meanwhile, the incidence of outrage goes up daily. i would urge on behalf of the committee, the home office, to really, really take this problem seriously. the home office declined our request for an interview, but in a statement said: this response is expected in the autumn.

sales of alcohol at most european and us airports do require an alcohol licence. the industry insiders we've met think it's time the uk brought in the same rules. i think ultimately we are there for safety and that shouldn't be forgotten at the cost of people making money. and i feel personally that it will take something more serious to happen, so say there's an accident, before the caa and airlines step in and make a change. campaigners believe we'll only see a reduction in drunken behaviour at 35,000 feet it controls on alcohol sales are introduced. but a clampdown could mean reduced revenues for airports and all of us paying more for ourflights. welcome to bbc news, broadcasting to viewers in north america and around the globe. my name is mike embley.

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