Unfortunately, excessive drinking on flights is not a new occurrence. Thirty years ago, on my honeymoon, we were flying from JFK to Martinique. Plane left JFK at about 9 AM on a Sunday morning -- and already the drunks were out. Evidently, this PanAm flight was used by Club Med to ferry its US customers to its Club on Martinique, and all of these louts appear to have decided that in order to preserve their stock of beads for the upcoming week (Club Med used beads as drink chits), they decided to start their drinking a day early.
Long story short, fistfights and other nastiness broke out around us in Economy on the plane. I can't say that it also involved smoking because smoking was still permitted at that time. Needless to say, one week later when we went to FDF airport for our return journey to JFK, my bride and I were concerned that the same group of louts would be on our plane again. But fortunitiously the Club Med bus had delivered all of its PAX to the airport a couple of hours before we arrived, so they were already checked in. At the counter, because it was a hot day, there was some discussion as to whether we (as later check-ins) might have be bumped from the flight. But as things worked out, we were permitted to board the flight and were BUMPED TO FIRST CLASS!
While we kept an ear cocked towards the back of the plane to listen for any commotion, we didn't hear any -- so maybe they were all alcoholed-out after a week of debauchery (the Club Med on Martinique was considered to be one of the most libertine of their roster).