“An ATA passenger says he was harassed by a flight attendant, and almost arrested by police, for using an iPhone to watch a movie while on a recent flight to Hawaii,” Aero-News Network reports.
“The passenger, who was only identified by his first name Casey, got a scare from ATA flight attendants and the police. The iPhone has an ‘airplane mode’ that disables cell phone, radio, Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth signals, thus allowing you to watch movies… but that didn’t stop flight attendants from creating a scene,” Aero-News Network reports.
All of the gory details in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: As usual, it’ll take awhile for people like flight attendants to catch up.
Just think how silly that flight attendant would have felt if it turned out to be an iPod Touch instead of a iPhone?
Just think how silly that flight attendant would have felt if it turned out to be an iPod Touch instead of a iPhone?
Just think how silly that flight attendant would have felt if it turned out to be an iPod Touch instead of a iPhone?
Just think how silly that flight attendant would have felt if it turned out to be an iPod Touch instead of a iPhone?
You know, I hate to stereotype and all, but let’s face it.. Most male flight attendants are gay…
Most gay boys are pretty hip to the latest and greatest gadgets..
Take a walk around West Hollywood (boys town,) and you will see every other gay boy sporting an iPhone.
So the way I see it, either this flight attendant was really old or just trying to get a phone number.
And before you start bashing me, I am also gay.
I’m okay with them harassing passengers for watching their own in-flight movie, so long as they don’t racial profile and offend any Arab-looking men by inspecting them more thoroughly. If there is one thing I can’t stand, it’s offending those wonderful Arab people.
Flight attendent are among the dumbest people on earth. Several months after 911 I was on a flight that was about 4 hours and was right over lunch time. I politely asked if there were any meal options on the flight to get the response “what kind of stupid question is that” from the male flight attendant. My responce was “what kind of stupid response is that”. He told me that after 911 that they can’t have plastic knifes on flights. I couldn’t believe it seeing as how I am 6’6″ and over 300lbs and the little old lady a few seats away from me has foot long knitting needles. A plastic fork should be the least of their worries, same with an iPhone that basically turn on to iPod Touch mode.
Hey! Be more sympathetic to people tryin’ ta do their freakin’ job, it’s not like being an attendant and serving peanuts at 10,000 feet is a job a well trained monkey, like those cute little monkeys in the bellhop uniform, with the fez, holding the cup while the guy plays accordion can do . . . kinda.
The show “Myth Busters” did a segment on the whole “no phones on a plane” thing and they found that certain 1G and 2G cellular frequencies DO in fact interfere with the navigational systems of the plane.
Not to say that Myth Busters is the final source for all thing scientific, but I think they put more thought into than anyone on this page (myself included).
But most importantly, the flight attendant was a douche.
I understand and share the frustrating experiences from the airline industry…but those who keep calling flight attendants stupid need to get a clue. Serving drinks and food is a tiny fraction of their job. They are trained and tested every single year on their ability to evacuate a plane in less than 1:30. If fail, they lose their jobs.
Do YOU get tested on your life saving skills every year for YOUR review? Show some respect – they are on that plane to try to save YOUR life if it comes to it. They deal with the same delays you do, spend their days taking abuse for the hassles inflicted by the airlines and TSA and make crap money for it.
/rant off
//ATA attendant was clueless about iPhone airplane mode – wonder if Casey clarified the issue or escalated it
“THERE ARE NO CELL TOWERS BETWEEN THE MAINLAND AND HAWAII.”
i guess that explains why he was yelling into the phone then. have to send those sound waves a long way…..
What I want to know is… how did the flight attendant distinguish it from an iPod touch at a distance?
I mean, aside from the thinner profile, which most people wouldn’t know about much less be able to distinguish, short of looking at the back I can’t see how he would have known for sure it was an iPhone.
flight attendants are like nurses… they think they are semi intelligent… but in reality they are mostly slut dumbshits.
A. The flight attendant was wrong about the FAA regulation, clearly.
B. There is another FAA regulation which is clearly stated at the beginning of most flights that says passengers are required to comply with all crew instructions.
Arguing with the flight attendant resulted in a prolonged encounter during which his attention was distracted from his primary responsibility — the safety of the passengers.
So they’re both wrong. The proper response would have been to explain it once, then simply turn it off and file a grievance with ATA after the flight.
It’s all in here…
http://www.airsafe.com/issues/AC91-21-1A.pdf
Actually, there’s quite a bit of evidence that cellphones can affect cockpit instruments. NASA has a database of some of those occurances.
I’m sure it’s one of those cases where if you happen to be sitting in the right seat at the right time, using your cellphone or laptop computer can affect these things. It can also be that you using your cellphone or laptop and the guy right across from using his cellphone/laptop will have an affect. If one of you turns it off, everything is fine.
Heck, I once was using my laptop with WiFi turned on (by accident). There was an announcement over the intercom asking all passengers using laptops to make certain that their wireless network cards were turned off. I did one of those, “I know this is off and–oops!” I asked the FA about it later in the flight and she said that, yes, the autopilot was being flaky and right after they made the announcement, everything was fine.
The problem is that it’s not their airline’s job to figure out what is going on and unless you have to a curious airline crew, their job is to make sure the instruments are working. If you turn off your cellphone/laptop and everything starts working again, that’s usually the end of it.
Also, as they announce at the beginning of the flight, the FA is in charge. If the FA tells you to turn off your electronic device, you turn it off. They don’t have to explain why they want you to turn it off. It’s usually better to comply first and and ask questions later.
That said, it doesn’t surprise me that the airline in question is ATA. I flew them once from LA to JFK and it was, without question, the worst flight I’ve ever taken.
I guess I can understand the “don’t ask- just do it” if the flight attendants really are concerned for passengers safety.
But it’s just another reason why I avoid flying at ALL COSTS. Even with gas prices higher- there is nothing worse than the long security lines and all the other hassles of flying these days.
That’s why I use my private jet that consumes 1000x more fuel per second than your Hummer for a year. But of course I buy carbon credits to offset that. Remember- you should ride your bike to work! I need my jet to go pick up my Nobel.
The ONLY reason that this is a STORY is because of the iPhone.
Otherwise, who cares. We all know that commercial airline travel stinks.
Big surprise that some paranoid FA told someone to turn off their iPhone! Whoop ti doo!
Can you imagine being a FA?
Who knows if you’ll even have a job next week? But you’re still responsible for the safety of all of these people. And you’ve been told that cell phones can cause planes to CRASH! And that baby in row 4 won’t shut up. And you just broke up with your San Fran boyfriend (who are you going to stay with now?). And you really are jealous because you want an iPhone.
“Use of electronic devices has NO EFFECT on airplane electronics”
Oh, I guess thats why they tell you not to use cellphones at gas stations!
Any broadcasting device has potential effect on electronic.
Please open you yapper only when you have a clue what u r talimg about, ok?
Not using mobile phones at gas/petrol stations is also pointless, sitting down while car fills and then standing up again is far more dangerous because it can generate a static charge (and is almost 100% reason for pump fires).
The reason you cannot use a mobile phone in an aircraft is not because of safety but because airlines have no way of charging you for such a service, although some have experimented with in-plane cell stations.
So long as electronics are shielded, and the wires between them are either twisted (ala CAT5) or shielded then RFI and EMI does not affect them. If aircraft had unshielded fly-by-wire cables any radio — not just mobile phones — would stop them flying.
Vanillacide:
Right and wrong. I’m actually really surprised by the ignorance here.
No, mobile phones are not (by design) going to cause a plane to fall out of the sky, nor will just about anything short of an EMP or a massive physical failure or trauma.
However, a malfunctioning FM device of any sort has the potential to broadcast and/or receive outside its design specs, which has the outside chance of causing interference with a number of radio systems on the plane if they, too, are malfunctioning. This, too, stands a very small chance of actually resulting in any harm to anyone. But a perfect storm of circumstances could.
It’s extra-extra cautious. The FAA takes safety very very very very seriously. And with good reason.
Okay, Einstein, then why do all airlines make the request to turn of all portable electronic devices? Which would include ALL PORTABLE ELECTRONIC DEVICES – phones, cameras, mp3 players, DVD players.
“B. There is another FAA regulation which is clearly stated at the beginning of most flights that says passengers are required to comply with all crew instructions.”
I, for once, would refuse to hand over my wallet if instructed so by a flight attendant. Furthermore, I would use my own discretion, whether to follow instructions to kiss the flight attendant’s rear, depending i) on the sex of said flight attendant, ii) her age and overall physical appearance, and iii) the shape of the butt in question.
Bottomline (pun intended), we wouldn’t follow “all crew instructions”. The passenger should have insisted on speaking with the purser.
I am mindful of the difference between the executive branch and the legislative branch. I assured all four of these leaders that I know the difference, and that difference is they pass the laws and I execute them.
–George w. Bush
Washington, DC
12/20/2000
PC Apologist has it right. Once you board the plane the FA is God. They can require you to do anything they want, even something illegal, immoral or degrading, and if you refuse to do so, you’re guilty of a crime. Now generally most law officers will treat the situation exactly the way that the police did in Casey’s case: if the underlying order that you disobeyed was improper, then they won’t charge you with disobeying the FA, but that isn’t always the case. I had a client who refused an order from a female flight attendant to disrobe when the FA claimed that the client had been smoking in the bathroom. The client emptied her pockets and purse to show that she didn’t have any cigarettes with her, but the FA insisted that she was hiding them on her person. A later strip search proved that my client had no cigarettes, and the court later ruled that a strip search by the FA was an abuse of authority. But the court also ruled that passenger safety always wins and that when a FA abuses their authority, the only appropriate course is to comply and sue for damages later. The jury found against my client, but only on a misdemeanor offense, not the felony originally charged. Most FAs are wonderful, helpful people in a very high stress (and after 9/11, potentially deadly) job. But like all professions, there are a few bad apples (pun not intended). Still I worry about these bad apples, especially given that now some of them may be armed.