An 
Alaska Airlines
flight took a turn for the chaotic last Tuesday. A reportedly intoxicated woman began disrupting the flight when she hit her husband, disrupted passengers by flailing her arms, and intentionally hit her head on the seat in front of her.
Chaos on AS46
Alaska Airlines flight 46 was a direct flight between Bethel Airport (BET) in Bethel, Alaska, and Ted Stevens International Airport (ANC) in Anchorage. One of Alaska’s Boeing 737-800
aircraft, registered as N577AS, operated the flight.
Photo: Bradley Caslin | Shutterstock
On the flight were 38-year-old passenger Caryn Evans and her husband, who are from Chefornak, a remote Alaskan village located southwest of Bethel along the Alaskan coast. Alaska’s News Source reports that as the aircraft started its descent into Anchorage, Evans had begun to shout incoherently and struck her husband several times.
The cabin crew responded by moving her husband to a new seat in the back of the plane. Though it helped de-escalate the situation at first, eventually, Evan started flailing her arms and interfering with other passengers. A nurse volunteered to sit with her for the rest of the flight, but the problems did not stop once the aircraft touched down in Anchorage at 20:34 AKST.
After arrival in Alaska’s largest city, Evan began banging her head repeatedly on the seat in front of her. As a response, flight attendants decided to put her hands in flexcuffs, which made her calm down before arrival at the gate. Law enforcement removed her from the plane. On Friday, three days after the original incident, Evans was released from jail. If convicted, she could face as many as 20 years in prison.
Earlier detection
As reported by The Independent, a criminal complaint about the incident claimed an off-duty police officer noticed that Caryn Evans was heavily intoxicated at Bethel Airport. They claimed to have seen her bumping into people and expressing aggressive behavior prior to boarding AS46. She was still permitted to board the aircraft, and Evan’s husband claims the last drink she finished hastily prior to descent was mainly responsible for her deteriorating behavior.
Photo: Philip Pilosian | Shutterstock
Evan is from Chefornak, Alaska. The small and isolated village has outlawed the possession and sale of alcohol, as alcohol was frequently involved in criminal activity in the area. While the town is only accessible by plane, snowmobile, or (in the summer months when ice melts) by boat, alcohol is still sometimes imported through these transportation channels.
Multiple Assaults: FAA Referred 43 More Unruly Passenger Cases To The FBI Over The Last Year
Three cases had involved attempts to breach the cockpit mid-flight.
Passenger disruptions continue to plague US carriers
The recovery demand following the COVID-19 pandemic has seen impressive numbers of passengers return to the skies. While this is good news for airlines, it has also resulted in an uptick in unruly passenger incidents.
For example, in October 2024, an American Airlines flight from Miami International Airport (MIA) to Charlotte Douglas International Airport (CLT) was disrupted after an altercation between two passengers in the first class cabin. Law enforcement met the aircraft upon arrival in North Carolina.
Photo: Robin Guess | Shutterstock
These incidents are just two examples of thousands of events that have occurred since travel demand began recovering after 2020. As of October 2024, the Federal Aviation Administration
(FAA) had reported 1,607 unruly passenger incidents in 2024. In 2023, this number surpassed 2,000 reports total.