they are no different to many other hard working, public facing people, like Nurses, Doctors, etc . . . . . . . all of whom regularly face abuse from the public
the full authority of significant personal experience
Please excuse the intrusion, obviously I'm not CC (though I do see quite a lot of CC when medicals are required !). But I can confirm from my own experience that abuse from the public (especially intoxicated ones) is a sad factor common to all our professions. I got a lot when I was a GP; my daughter-in-law is an A&E Staff Nurse; and in my view anyone who violently attacked CC as described here should get much more than just a few months in jail. One would also hope that he would be banned from ALL airlines for life.