♪ this is "nightline." >> tonight, troubled skies. the holiday travel nightmare. busy airports, the covid surge. >> it's very stressful. i'm constantly checking to see if there's any changes. >> why some are speaking out against the new cdc isolation recommendations. >> we've got to make sure that employees don't feel pressured to come to work when they've been exposed to covid. >> and air rage. >> put your [ bleep ] mask on! >> how some flight attendants are protecting themselves. plus -- >> bubba wallace gets his first career win. >> the transformation of bubba wallace. >> i went from bubba wallace the somewhat favored driver to the

worst hated driver in the sport. >> one of the controversial drivers of the circuit taking on the confederate flag. can he be an agent for change? what he felt during an unexpected moment of unity. i thought i was getting my floors clean. and then i learned my mop could be loaded with bacteria. so, i got a swiffer wetjet to get a cleaner... clean the spray breaks down dirt and the pad absorbs it deep inside. buh bye. try wetjet with a money-back guarantee. new vicks vapostick. strong soothing vapors... help comfort your loved ones. for chest, neck, and back. it goes on clear. no mess just soothing comfort. try new vicks vapostick.

jordan knows he shouldn't eat this entire bowl of nachos. but tonight, he's earned that right. because a few hours ago, in the middle of happy hour, he recognized a sign. not from the gods or a bolt of lightning, but from a double-heart, a kissy face, and a fourth ha in "hahaha." that's when jordan knew he was buzzed. so, when it was time to go, he got a ride home instead of driving. be a legend like jordan. recognize your buzzed warning signs and get a ride home. ♪ good evening. thank you for joining us.

the numbers are staggering. the u.s. his averaged 240,000 nw covid infections a day. many of them from the highly transmissible omicron variety. the surge is having impact nationwide, one of the biggest on the airline industry. disruption couldn't be less welcome during this busy holiday season. >> it's very stressful. i'm constantly seeing if there's any changes. >> reporter: coast to coast, airport to airport, passengers none too happy with travel plans interrupted. >> cancelation, didn't sleep, now i'm trying to get a flight. >> reporter: over 1,000 flights canceled every day since christmas eve. united, delta, american, jet blue citing staffing shortages as a surge in covid cases impacts crew staffing. >> this is our third time booking our trip to washington because covid got us twice, and we wouldn't come. but this, we just said, we're coming. it's winter break from school, we're coming. >> this is a no-win situation

for everyone. airlines lose, passengers lose. >> reporter: as cases of the omicron variant increasingly sideline airline workers, some officials are calling for re-evaluation of how we should travel safely. dr. anthony fauci saying on msnbc, the u.s. should consider a vaccine mandate for domestic flights. >> when you make vaccination a requirement, that's another incentive to get more people vaccinated. if you want to do that with domestic flights, i think that's something that seriously should be considered. >> reporter: cdc issuing new covid-19 guidance on monday, recommending shortened isolation time for asymptomatic individuals from ten days to five. because, they claim, the disease is more transmissible during the early days of illness. delta's ceo was the first to ask the cdc last week to reduce the time. the company calling the decision, quote, a safe, science-based, and more practical approach based on what we now know about the omicron variant. but not everyone is happy with

the guidance. >> we've got to make sure that employees don't feel pressured to come to work when exposed to covid. >> several labor unions have said they're concerned that the reduction in the isolation time means that employees who are sick could be put back at work. >> if it had been prompted more on a scientific study or a finding that was recent, instead of at the behest of airline executives and other -- to other staffing issues, that might have given us more confidence in why we were needing to change the quarantine and isolation guidelines. >> reporter: another threat in the unfriendly skies, continued incidents of passenger rage. last thursday when a delta flight to atlanta spiraled out of control. >> [ bleep ]. >> reporter: authorities say the passenger, former nfl cheer leader and actress patricia cornwall, slapped and spit on an

80-year-old man. crew members moved cornwall to the back of the plane for the remainder of the flight. upon landing, she was detained and charged with assault. the male passenger was not charged. cornwall has not entered a plea or a comment publicly. delta saying the company has, quote, zero-tolerance for unruly behavior at our airports and aboard our aircraft. >> when flight attendants are having to deal with customers on board and there are lots of micro aggressions, sometime is it's over the mask mandate, but sometimes it isn't. it can just be general compliance, as simple as asking for somebody to fasten their seat belt or stay seated on the taxiway. we can see a lot of people behaving and responding in anger. >> reporter: so far this year, the faa has reported around 5,800 incidents involving unruly passengers. more than 4,100 involving masks. 85% of flight attendants also

claim they dealt with a disorderly passenger. 1 in 5 say they've been subjected to a physical incident. >> stop, stop, stop! >> reporter: on this delta flight before christmas, the video obtained by tmz, two men throw punches on a late-night allegedlyom l.a. to memphis, - wearing. the men declined to press charges against each other and were not detained. in september, this man is seen berating a flight crew and fellow passengers on a plane headed to salt lake city from l.a. >> really? >> reporter: video taken by fellow passenger shows the man not responding to mask constructions. authorities say he was arrested at the gate -- >> on! >> reporter: and cited with public intoxication and disorderly conduct. earlier this year, a southwest airlines flight attendant was assaulted on a flight from sacramento. the passenger, viviana,

allegedly punched a flight aendance in a face so hard, she knocked out two of her teeth. >> one quick punch and she was on the floor. >> reporter: the apparent provocation, the flight attendant asked viviana to wear her mask correctly. last week she pled guilty to a federal felony of interference with flight crew members and will be sentenced in march. she faces up to 20 years behind bars. >> people seem to be agitated, and they tend to let out aggressions on frontline workers. >> i'm teddy andrews, i'm an american airlines flight attendant. i've been flying with american for ten years. i start in the aviation industry in 1981. >> reporter: teddy andrews testified before congress about his own personal experience with a belligerent passenger earlier this year. >> he said, "n" word, i don't have to listen to a damn thing you say. this is a free country. i was completely taken aback, i didn't know what to say. but he continued. you heard me, n-word boy.

>> what am i going to do to keep it calm, to make sure it doesn't escalate in a direction we didn't want it to go, 30,000 feet in the air? no police. no air marshal. just four flight attendants and this passenger. >> reporter: because of the increased tensions in the skies, some flight attendants are preparing for the worst, training with self-defense classes provided by tsa, taught by air marshals. usually occurring every three months with eight students, now in high demand. >> now you're basically doing three or four times of classes with double the amount of people? >> yes. >> that's a lot. >> it's a lot. the assaults and the disruption on this the aircraft are higher than they have been in recent memory. >> reporter: during a four-hour course the marshals teach flight attendants de-escalation

techniques and how to defend themselves when passengers become violent, like this. >> turn. break it away from the thumb. >> reporter: for this flight attendant, it's a refer fresher course with a new mindset. this is something where, when you took this class the first time, years ago, you probably thought, oh, i probably won't have to use a lot of this? >> yeah. now i'm like, wait a minute, i might have to use this tomorrow. i hope i don't. >> reporter: the troubles are more than likely to continue. tsa predicting that the monday after new year's may be one of the busiest days of the holiday season. up next, one of nascar's most popular and controversial drivers, bubba wall ras. how he's become a force for change in the sport. huh. is that true? geico's been saving folks money for 85 years? yeah, that's right. wait — so if geico's 85, that makes you — are you asking if i'm 85 years old? i mean sea turtles live to 150,

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bubba wallace. only the second black man ever to win a nascar cup series race. known for confidence on the track and blazingly fast finishes. in the documentary "fistful of steel," espn's ryan mcgee tells how wallace has also become an unlikely voice for change. >> reporter: bubba wallace has emerged as one of the influential and polarizing figures in american motorsports. at 28 years old, wallace finds himself in the middle of a fight for social justice and racial progress. >> nascar banning the confederate flag -- >> a noose found in bubba

wallace's garage stall. >> reporter: the confederate battle flag, an image entangled with nascar culture from its earliest days. for some emblematic of nascar's rebellious southern heritage. to others it was simply a symbol of hate. >> we don't want to integrate! two, four, six, eight -- >> you see a crowd of 70,000 people, you see those flags, they're telling you, this is not for you. don't come here. >> it never offended me, seeing the flag. i didn't know the history behind it, i didn't take the time to sit down and go through it and want to understand it. but then reading why people hate so it much? oh. all right. got it, yeah, that's pretty bad. >> reporter: june 8th, 2020. bubba wallace appeared on cnn. >> my next step would be to get rid of all confederate flags. no one should feel uncomfortable when they come to a nascar race.

>> we have some breaking news in nascar. moments ago, they released a statement banning the confederate flag from all of its races and properties. >> a lot of people from all backgrounds, all races, were like, absolutely, amen to that. then you had the ones that were stuck in their ways that, you know -- this is b.s., you're bringing politics into nascar. >> what do you say when people say that though? keep politics out of sports, keep politics out of nascar? >> people want to make it political when it's just being a decent human. treating everybody equal. treating everybody equal is not political. it's the way we were brought in. but when the black guy says it, it's political. >> this is the difficulty of being black against these predominantly white spaces. nascar has had its own cultural issues since before he was born. and the real issues should be between the people who have

created this 50-year culture. it's not his fight, but it becomes his fight. >> i knew it made a lot of die-hard fans very angry and upset. and you know, i've read some really hurtful things, you know, toward bubba. he's got a lot of enemies out there. >> reporter: 13 days after bubba's call for action, it all came to a head. in the heart of the deep south. at talladega super speedway. that night, nascar president steve phelps asked to meet with wallace. >> and he said, uh, there was a hate crime that was committed today. >> late this afternoon, nascar was made aware that a noose was found in the garage stall of the 43 team. >> nascar says that when they

find whoever did this, they will be banned from the sport and will never race with them again. >> reporter: as the next day dawned, the fbi sent 15 agents to talladega to investigate the alleged hate crime. >> pulled up the group chat with drivers and jimmy was like, i plan on standing with bubba wallace today. >> i just wanted to stand women him during the national anthem, show my support for him. was appalled by what i had learned. then as drivers got involved, i think crew members, team managers, team owners, it really started to snowball within a very short period of time. >> i get out of the car. i look back. i was like, it's the whole garage. that's when i lost it.

♪ [ cheers and applause ] >> after the race, i heard my name being chanted. i looked back, a glance, like oh, thanks. i was like, damn, that's a group of black people. >> thank you. thank you. pretty sure they'd never been to a race before. but they're here because of me. >> proud to stand where i'm at and carry a new face -- first time you're here from atlanta. [ cheers and applause ] that is so cool. the sport is changing. >> reporter: the fbi announced the findings of their investigation. the noose had been in that particular garage stall since october 2019, and wallace was not the victim of a federal hate crime.

>> i went from bubba wallace the somewhat favored driver, to the worst hated driver in the sport. >> we're never going to find out who did it. but i wasn't ready for the conspiracy theories of him doing it himself. that was pretty hurtful. >> fake noose, hoax, all that stuff, i had planted it,i was in the garage, i did it. it never stops. >> the one that i remember most is someone telling my brother to use that noose and put it around his neck. >> when the noose incident hit, it just reminded me of how we react to race in this country. that white people are immediately going to find every single possible way they can to tell you this was not racist. and that black people in a lot of ways are going to immediately

react and say, let me tell you why this was racist. it was an example to me of just how tenuous and how explosive everything is in this country. >> reporter: in the end, nascar reviewed 1,684 garage stalls at 29 different racetracks across the country. only one had a garage pull fashioned as a noose. >> you tie that knot every day, tie your shoestrings like that? no. no, that took time to do. it's a noose. so there you go. >> reporter: on october 4th, 2021, bubba was back at talladega. the very same track where the noose was found. >> history made once again. bubba wallace gets his first career win. he's just the second african american to ever win at the

highest level of nascar. >> reporter: the test now is to see if that progress -- real, tangible change -- can continue. >> we're all people. we're all brought here for a purpose. and it's not to hate each other because of the way you look. it's to figure how to make this place better. i don't know if my purpose is to drive race cars. feels like it is, but who knows? it's why you're tested every day, to figure what your purpose is in life. >> our thanks to ryan. "fistful of steel: the rise of bubba wallace" is streaming on espn plus. up next, remembering two legends. football broadcaster and coach john madden, and long-serving senate majority leader nevada democrat harry reid. , i didn't y know how to take care of them. that's until i found swiffer wetjet wood.

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finally, the passing of two extraordinary men. john madden, the successful nfl coach turned beloved analyst, died today at the age of 85.

madden's exuberance as a broadcaster endeared him to players and legions of football fans and was the face of one of the most successful sports video games of all-time. and former senator harry reid, who passed away today from pancreatic cancer at the age of 82. the soft-spoken nevada democrat was one of the longest-serving majority leaders and a political force. that's "nightline" for this evening. catch our full episodes on hulu. we'll see you right back here, same time tomorrow. thanks for the company, america. good night.