There’s an unruly passenger on your flight. Should you confront them?

It’s not every day that fellow passengers are asked to step in during an in-flight meltdown. But the Feb. 9 Frontier example wasn’t the only one that month.

A few days later, when a traveler on a D.C.-bound American Airlines flight tried to open the plane door, another passenger said she heard requests for “big guys to come to the front of the plane.” Bystanders and crew subdued the 50-year-old man.

Disruptive behavior has reached unprecedented levels in recent years, often involving passengers who refuse to follow the federal mask mandate for transportation. As of Monday, the Federal Aviation Administration had received 1,035 reports of unruly passengers this year. Last year’s tally reached 5,981.

What should passengers do if they find themselves in the middle of disruptive behavior? Don’t overreact, experts say.

Sara Nelson, international president of the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA, said in an email that fliers should not engage, unless there’s imminent danger of physical harm.

Instead, she said, they should notify flight attendants — who are trained in de-escalation techniques — by telling one when they pass by, going to the galley area or ringing the call button.

“If a fellow passenger is disruptive, the flight attendants will handle that and prefer no interference, unless the situation becomes violent,” Jeff Price, professor of aviation management at Metropolitan State University of Denver, said in an email. “Otherwise, the involvement of other passengers before a physical altercation (or threat of one), can escalate the situation.”

Most airlines declined to answer questions from The Washington Post about the topic.

“We ask that customers follow the instructions of Southwest employees during any type of incident or event as each situation can be unique,” Southwest Airlines said in a statement.

Even if a situation escalates, passengers may not need to step in. Federal air marshals are placed on domestic and international flights, though details about their numbers and deployment are not released. The president of the Southwest flight attendants union asked her airline last year to demand that the government increase the number of air marshals on flights and ask that they get involved when a crew member is threatened. The Transportation Security Administration also offers self-defense training to flight attendants.

Nelson said a fellow passenger only should intervene if a flight attendant asks them to do so. She said they might be asked to move to another seat.

“In extreme incidents, passengers may be directed to help restrain another passenger,” she said in her email.

Price said that could look like a specific request to grab someone’s hands, or whatever else the crew needs. In the Frontier scuffle, the group ultimately put zip ties around the hands of the violent passenger and bound his feet with plastic wrap.

Passengers have been intervening in such incidents for decades — sometimes with serious results. In 2000, a 19-year-old passenger who broke a Southwest cockpit door died after he was…