Qantas flight diverted after passenger bites flight attendant

Somewhere over the Pacific on May 15, a transpacific Qantas flight became a reminder that the confined world of a long-haul aircraft is one where human volatility has nowhere to go but inward. A passenger's escalating behavior forced the crew to divert from Melbourne's path to Dallas and land instead in Papeete, French Polynesia, after the man bit a flight attendant and had to be physically subdued by fellow travelers. The incident, which ended in a police handover and a lifetime ban from the airline, speaks to the fragile social contract that holds together hundreds of strangers hurtling acro