Aviation security experts have called for cameras in the cabin to deter aggressive behaviour and provide evidence for prosecutions.

Figures released by the Department for Transport (DfT) showed an annual increase from 1,359 cases to 2,219 in the year to March, with 58 involving injury or forcing the aircraft to be diverted.

The report cited alcohol and tobacco as the main contributory factors, with nearly 25% of incidents arising from passengers smoking in plane toilets.

“Most of our problems stem from couples having arguments,” said a Thomsonfly steward. “We also have trouble from passengers slamming their seats back into someone’s lap. That causes a lot of shouting and quite a few thick ears.”

In one of 14 incidents in which aircraft were diverted last year, a man clambered over seats to punch a passenger who had asked him to extinguish a cigarette. The court in Newcastle upon Tyne heard how Stephen Robinson, 53, had become aggressive after trying to use a House of Fraser store card to buy drinks. He was jailed for 12 months.

In May, Claire Scott of Glasgow put an EasyJet steward in hospital after he asked her to leave a flight from Palma. Scott later boasted on a networking website that she’d given the steward “a Glesga kiss and a swift left hook”.

Philip Baum, editor of Aviation Security International magazine, says that the solution is a network of cameras running the length of the cabin. “It would be an extremely useful evidential tool,” he said. “If there were an air-rage or terrorist incident on board, the whole thing would be captured for use in prosecution. And it would allow the flight crew to monitor the situation without leaving the flight deck.”

Rob Davies, of the airline-safety consultancy AD Aerospace, says the system already exists, but airlines have yet to express an interest. “Passenger aircraft are already required to have cameras on cockpit doors, allowing pilots to see who’s knocking. Cameras in the cabin are a natural progression and would have a deterrent effect – after a couple of prosecutions based on video evidence, troublemakers would get the message.”

As for privacy concerns over passengers being filmed at 37,000ft, Baum suggests that flight crews might have better things to do. “If you don’t want to be filmed, then you shouldn’t even come to the airport,” he said.

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