Mmm, an interesting thread that has made enjoyable reading.
Generally, there are three main issues which cause passengers to behave in an inappropriate manner when checking in for a flight:
1) Having to re-pack overweight hold luggage (the maximum
allowance being 32kg for any one piece) and cabin baggage
exceeding the limit set by the carrier (usually between 6-8 kg).
2) Passengers not getting the seats they wanted, or groups
being sat apart due to limited seat availability as a result of
being late to check in.
3) Passengers being denied travel after the flight has closed.
The above are the main causes of pax getting shirty on the ground. I would imagine that for the cabin crew, it is probably things like seatbelts, drunks, and rudeness etc.
The important thing to remember when watching TV programmes like Airline/Airport etc is this:
A 30 minute TV show about lots of thoroughly lovely, polite, and well behaved middle class people going on their holidays would make for very dull television indeed.
Furthermore, based on my own experience of airport life, I would imagine the production teams would have to shoot hours and hours of footage to get even one minor 'fuse blowing' incident, as they really are few and far between.
Hope that answers a few questions.
