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On Friday, CNN reported that a JetBlue passenger en route from Anchorage to Portland, Ore., stood up and urinated on passengers sitting in front of him and others around him. When the plane landed, he was arrested by Portland police, charged with criminal mischief and offensive littering, two misdemeanors, and later released.
星期五，CNN报道一位搭乘捷蓝航空公司(JetBlue)飞机的旅客在从安克雷奇飞往俄勒冈州波特兰的途中站起身来向坐在前排和周围的旅客身上小便。飞机降落时，他被波特兰警方逮捕，遭到刑事恶作剧和冒犯性乱丢物品两项轻罪起诉，后被释放。
In the annals of bad flights, this one certainly ranks among the most disgusting, but it is not a total outlier. Days later, an American Airlines flight from Miami to Chicago was diverted, according to the ABC affiliate in Chicago, because of a passenger’s “erratic” behavior that witnesses said involved kicking a seat, kissing a flight attendant and then punching her in the face. What — if anything — can travelers do about this kind of behavior? We asked Gary Leff, co-founder of Milepoint.com, a frequent flier discussion site, to weigh in. The following are edited excerpts from a conversation with Mr. Leff.
在各种不良飞行记录中，这件事可以算是比较恶心的，但还不是那么出格。几天后，一次从迈阿密飞往芝加哥的航班被迫转向，根据ABC台在芝加哥的分支报道，是因为一名乘客“古怪”的行为，据目击者说，他踢椅子，亲吻空姐，然后又打她的脸。万一在飞机上遇到这种事，旅客们该怎么办？我们请飞机旅客讨论网站Milepoint.com的联合创始人加里·莱夫(Gary Leff)发表一下意见。以下内容来自与莱夫先生的对话，经过编辑和节选。
Q: Do fliers have any recourse when exposed to such bad behavior in the air?
问：乘客们如果在飞行时遇到这种恶劣的事件，有什么追索权？
A. They wouldn’t have any more recourse, really, if it happened at a sports stadium. People behave badly all the time, and as gross as this is, it’s a relatively minor thing to pursue recourse over. Anyone doing this is probably relatively judgment-proof anyway, so no, you don’t have much recourse.
答：如果这种事发生在体育馆里，其实也没有什么追索权。总有那种表现恶劣的人，尽管很糟糕，但要去追索赔偿，这种事又显得太小。能干出这种事的人又多少有可能不具备履行判决的能力。所以，对，乘客没有什么追索的权利。
If you sense something is not right with your seatmate, what can you do?
问：如果你觉得旁边坐着的人有点不对劲，那你该怎么办？
It depends on how “not right” it is. The only thing you can do is inform the crew. If it’s reasonably minor, your hope is that there’s a free seat somewhere on plane and they can move you to it. If the plane is full, you can fly in your seat or hope to divert, but the crew will divert only in really serious situations. That’s up to the pilot’s judgment. In any place where it’s not completely full, consult with the crew to change seats. The first incident happened within 30 minutes of landing so there wasn’t going to be somewhere to divert quickly. They were almost there. If it happened early in the flight they could have wound up diverting the flight.
答：这取决于对方有多“不对劲”。你唯一能做的事就是通知乘务人员。如果事情确实很小，你就只能指望飞机上还有多余的座位，让乘务人员帮你换位子。如果飞机满员了，你就只能呆在自己的座椅上，或者指望飞机备降，但机组人员只有在非常严重的情况下才会这么做。而且这取决于飞行员的判断。如果飞机上还有空位，你可以和乘务人员商量要求换位子。第一件事（乘客小便）发生时，飞机还有不到30分钟就要降落了，所以没有备降。目的地马上就要到了。如果事情发生在飞机起飞不久，他们可能会备降。
How common are indignities of this caliber in-flight?
问：飞行中这种程度的冒犯举动经常发生吗?
This is very uncommon. There’s no question people behave badly on planes because there are lots of people in a confined space and there are people who behave badly everywhere. So we do see altercations everywhere in the sky, whether it’s the guy who brings the [Knee] Defender on and gets in a fight with person in front of him because he can’t recline his seat. But I’ve also seen bad behavior in premium cabins; it’s not just a function of economy travel.
答：这么糟糕的事并不是经常发生的。不过，人们在飞机上常常会表现恶劣，因为那么多人处在一个狭小的空间，而且还有人无论走到哪儿表现都很恶劣。所以我们也经常看到飞机上有人吵架，有人带着膝盖捍卫者(Knee Defender，一种令前座的椅背无法放倒的小玩意——编注)上飞机，结果前座的人没法把靠背放倒，双方大动干戈。但是我也见过头等舱里有人表现恶劣，糟糕的行为并不是经济舱的专利。
If you are urinated on or in some way your property is damaged by another traveler, can you seek compensation from the airline or were you just unlucky?
问：如果你被尿到身上了，或者你的物品被其他旅客毁坏了，你能从航空公司获得赔偿吗，还是只能认倒霉？
You were probably just unlucky. As long as it’s not a member of the crew, the airline doesn’t owe you anything. They are not actually at fault. They might offer a good-will gesture because you had a bad experience on their airline and they want to win back your business. You are more likely to get one based on your frequency of travel because they are interested in preserving the relationship. But you’re not likely to have a successful lawsuit against an airline for being urinated on.
答：很可能只能认倒霉。如果你不是机组成员，航空公司就不欠你什么。这并不是他们的错。他们可能会对你做出一些善意的表示，因为你在乘坐他们的航班时遇到了不好的体验，他们想挽回你这个乘客。你得到的待遇很可能和你乘机出行的频率有关，因为他们只对和你保持客户关系感兴趣。但你如果因为被小便淋了就起诉航空公司，多半是不会胜诉的。
