Originally Posted by AAFA
From what I see there, the issue about passengers congregating around rest rooms was cover by a TSA memo from in early 2004 noted below.
I would say AA is stretching it a bit to say that a FAA rule requires passengers to use the rest rooms in their ticketed cabin.
I would say that you are reading woefully out of date material. The TSA directive says ALL pax must stay in THEIR cabin. Period.
Sometimes the rules can be broken. It is when everyone wants to bend the rules to suit them that the problems arise.
Because I wanted to address my woefully outdated information--I have been searching around for this "stay in your own cabin" directive that is supposed to have been issued by the FAA/TSA.
I searched the web sites for both TSA and the FAA and there is nothing mentioned there about such a rule.
I also did google searches for all the combinations of the words
lavatory, restroom, tsa, cabin, congregate
I have come away with three conclusions after my internet search:
One is that doing searches on google with odd word combinations is an eye opening experience as to how the rest of the world lives...
Second is that the only information easily available regarding a restriction on which restroom to use is in flight is:
Update: Michelle Malkin responds that the Jan. 8, 2004 "no congregate" order applied only to international flights, and that the July 1 order was a response to domestic airlines' longstanding request to clarify the policy.
<<TSA has issued a new directive which demands pilots make a pre-flight announcement banning passengers from congregating in aisles and outside the plane's toilets. The directive also orders flight attendants to check the toilets every two hours for suspicious packages.>>
Lastly--I agree with a comment that I saw on one forum regarding this whole restroom issue-----
"I suggest mandatory sedation of all passengers for the duration of the flight. It would solve so many damn problems for everyone involved."