As anyone who has flown on an airplane in the past decade can attest, one of the few (perhaps the only) things that make modern commercial flying bearable is the potent inflight booze. For those lucky enough to travel abroad, alcohol is sometimes even free. But will this last shred of sanity be snatched away like a water bottle at airport security?
new release Research Think it should be so. The study was published in Chest Researchers from the German Institute of Aerospace Medicine have concluded that drinking alcohol on a flight increases the risk of heart attack. While the overarching conclusion sounds alarming and compelling, the study itself is not.
The researchers used only one sample 48 people Half of the group, aged 18 to 40, slept in a sleep lab that mirrored normal ground conditions, while the other half slept in a lab that simulated high-altitude cabin pressure. On the first night of testing, everyone was asked to sleep. The second night, each group was tasked with drinking and passing out. (As of this writing, it is unclear how a person would qualify as a test subject for such a study). The researchers then monitored each group’s heart rate and sleep patterns.
The results showed that people who drank and slept in the high-altitude simulation had the highest heart rates and lowest blood oxygen levels while sleeping. The researchers concluded that people with heart and lung disease and those with sleep apnea and other respiratory conditions may be at risk, but even healthy people are at risk.
“Even in young and healthy individuals, alcohol intake combined with sleep under low-pressure conditions can place considerable stress on the cardiac system and may lead to worsening of symptoms in patients with heart or lung disease,” the researchers said. “Our findings strongly suggest that alcoholic beverage consumption on aircraft should be restricted.”
One might think this was the work of just a handful of prohibitionists from across the pond, but as students of the temperance movement well know, prohibition’s brush fires can start with the smallest spark. In fact, the anti-alcohol movement on flights has begun to catch on in the United States.
Amid the coronavirus pandemic, multiple airlines have seen reports of physical altercations between unruly and drunken airline passengers and flight attendants. pause Their onboard alcohol service is complete. Despite this inherent market reaction—no airline wants to be the stage for drunken brawls in the clouds, after all—many federal lawmakers inevitably jumped on the prohibition bandwagon.
Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.) is called In 2021, he allegedly saw a fellow passenger ordering three drinks from to-go cups at an airport bar, and then after boarding the plane, airport bars were banned from providing take-away alcoholic beverages. Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., cited reports that passengers wearing masks were among those causing disturbances on the ship. record on file Support at least a temporary ban on hard stuff.
The study, which claims to show heart and other health risks, may further encourage people not to drink on planes. Lost in all of this is the reality that, as Rep. DeFazio’s anecdote illustrates, many of the unruly passengers who make media headlines involve those Already intoxicated You may bring your own alcohol on board the plane.
According to the Federal Aviation Administration regulationsit is already illegal for consumers to bring alcohol on board an aircraft: “No person shall consume any alcoholic beverage on board an aircraft unless the beverage has been made available to him by the holder of a certificate to operate the aircraft.” The regulation also states that aviation Companies are not allowed to allow intoxicated passengers to board or serve them more alcohol on board.
So a blanket ban on alcohol on board is just another example of governments imposing more rules to address behavior that is essentially already illegal. This will obviously inspire more people Passengers smuggled their own booze onto planes – here’s what happened has happened When airlines suspend alcohol service during pandemic. It doesn’t take a libertarian to understand that if you ban a legal product (such as on-board alcohol service) you will inevitably create a more powerful black market solution.
A better approach would be to allow airlines to continue selling and serving alcohol on board. Like a waiter at a bar, flight attendants could monitor how much each passenger is drinking, rather than letting uncontrollable on-board booze supercharge everyone for free. As for potential health issues, passengers should have the right to make their own decisions based on what they know best. Most people already do this by avoiding flying etc. scuba diving or major surgeryand there’s no reason why they can’t do the same when deciding whether to drink before or during a flight.
Some smart travelers have point out The above-mentioned FAA regulations simply say that a person cannot drink alcohol on an airplane unless provided by an aircraft staff member. Technically, this means you can bring your own alcohol on board (as long as it’s in mini bottles) and then just ask your flight attendant to serve it to you. At least a few airlines showed up open To this.
Now might be the time to find one of these airlines, book a flight, and enjoy this Prohibition-era 12-mile limit cocktail Protest in a provocative (but still technically legal) way:
Prohibition Era 12 Mile Extreme Cocktail
raw material:
- ½ ounce rye whiskey
- ½ ounce cognac
- ½ ounce rum
- ½ ounce pomegranate molasses (real grenadine, not brown molasses)
- ½ ounce lemon juice
- Lemon wedges (for garnish)
- ice
instruct:
- Prepare two mini bottles of wine, each under the 3.4 ounce TSA liquid carry-on limit.
- Fill a mini bottle with ½ ounce of rye whiskey and ½ ounce of cognac and finish with your favorite rum.
- Fill a second mini bottle with ½ ounce of grenadine and ½ ounce of lemon juice. Store this bottle in the refrigerator until traveling to the airport.
- Bring two mini bottles on the plane in your carry-on luggage.
- Ask a flight attendant to pour the contents of a filled bottle over a glass of ice.
- Add the grenadine and lemon juice mixture to the cup.
- Garnish with lemon wedges.
- Stir with the plastic stirring stick provided.
- Sit back, relax, and enjoy your cocktail (while you still can).
