magiciansampras

I would hope the arrogant SOB would get humiliated.

Flyingfox

Perhaps safety?
The clue phone is ringing..........but not on the plane, for some people!

clrankin

What would make you think the person would get humiliated? If the FA would say anything, it would be to nicely ask them to turn their phone off.And if it was done to me, I'd say "Sure, no problem," then turn the phone off. But that would be the end of it... It's highly unlikely that the FA is going to be rude to a passenger for no good reason.

So, again, my point... Sure, they have a rule. But there are no consequences in not following it. If one ignores the rule and doesn't get caught, nothing bad happens. If one ignores the rule and gets caught, nothing bad happens. It's not like people are fined, thrown in jail, or submitted to humiliation or torture for not turning their phones off. The only exception to this may be if the FA has to ask for the device to be turned off more than once-- but even then getting into trouble is highly unlikely unless the passenger is unruly or does something to provoke the FA.

All things being equal, I'll ignore a silly rule that has no teeth when it's inconvenient for me to obey it. And I'd bet you that I'll not be alone in those actions.

Spiff

Ok, there's practically no energy radiated in frequencies of interest in the far field (> 1m from the phone).

Happy now?

CargoHoldFlyer

Not arrogance at all - simple common sense and logical reasoning. So let's posit for a minute that cell phones create significant risk of interfering with flight operations, if that were the case, then I'd be s**t scared right now. I'd speculate that almost every flight has at least 1 if not more cell phones operating at "full power" during the entire flight operation (mostly phones that are in purses, handbags etc. and they're left on by accident).... If the probability was > 0% - let's assume 1 in 10,000 (or even 1 in 100,000 or 1 in 1,000,000) flight hours - there'd be reliable data and accidents to show that this was the case and the airlines and authorities would take a much stronger line against it.

Secondly, since several airlines and authorities have already authorized the use of cell phones in air it stands to reason that it's not dangerous.

As such a common sense, logic based deduction is that the rule imposed by the airlines is not based on any reality and is as such asinine.

Of course if you've missed the part where you shouldn't believe everything you're told (or read, or see or hear) - there's a larger issue here....

(oh and btw I have degrees in electrical engineering, computer science and mathematics - so I know a couple of things about circuits, shielding etc...)...

magiciansampras

I didn't say I think that they would, I said that I would hope that they would. I've seen FAs get on the mic to tell pax to sit down and then have the pax sheepishly return to their seat. It'd be nice to see the same thing with electronic devices. Shaming can be fun.

Again, this misses the point. They don't ask you to turn off your electronics because they think one person's cell phone is going to crash the plane. They do it because of the unknown risk of not regulating various electrical equipment that may or may not be harmful to the plane.

clrankin

Please show me the specific safety issues that have been reported that are related to people using their iPhones on flying planes. (Hint: I don't think there are any...)

N965VJ

A comped alcoholic drink in Y?

jbcarioca

These responses miss the point. They assume the rules are in place because of some reasoned analysis. Many rules, including FAA rules, are there because of tradition, not practicality. In the 25 years I have been involved in aviation and avionics I have never heard any engineer or avionics technician suggest cellular telephone or computer interference with navigation or engines. Once in a while a pilot, almost always a private pilot, will claim something has interfered with his instruments. I have helped diagnose many such cases always to find a different cause.

So why assume the FAA has soem safety related logic? They're just like the TSA, and I don't hear many FTers defending the TSA,

magiciansampras

You think it is more reasonable to assume that they don't?

LuvsParis

According to my own political theories - each one of us decides on our own when we wish to use civil disobedience. When a lot of us decide the same things, that's always interesting.

It's often called a "political movement" at that point.

That's what you're witnessing, right here on flyertalk.

That's interesting. After talking to my husband and another person who just got back from flying with an iPhone, they confirmed my memory that we were asked to turn off or switch to airplane mode. Indeed, on one flight, the FA specifically asked if our phones were on airplane mode (I thought I'd remembered correctly, and my friend who recently flew said that the FA mentioned airplane mode).

My brother is a airline pilot,, btw, flies with pretty much the same crew all the time - they allow airplane mode too.

So it's not universally applied on all airplanes (I'm flying out of Cali - we're relaxed; my brother flies out of Hawaii and Phoenix). If it's not universally applied on all airplanes, it can't be the regulations. It's an individual airline - or even individual airplane thing, is it not?

I did think I remembered not hiding my iPhone and being ready to show the FA that the airplane mode was on...she simply smiled at me and said nothing about me playing my map game during takeoff. This was AA.

But not all airlines do it in the same way - I just checked with the person in the office next door (iPhone user) and she says that yep, every time she flies out of LAX, they say, "Turn it off or switch to airplane mode, please." My husband reconfirms that he remembers the same instruction. I'm not that frequent a flier, but the person in the office next door flies back and forth to New England several times a year. She's got a cool collection of apps not requiring any kind of wifi or 3G, they are simply on the phone.

Also, no child was made to turn off their DVD players, at all, and there were bunches of kids watching DVD's during takeoff. No babies were made to turn off their music, either (yep, there were babies with music on our last flight).

Is this unusual? It's true we do usually fly out of LAX or Hilo or Kona...

N965VJ

Federal Air Regulations apply to all Part 121 carriers. Beyond that there are individual Operations Specifications that can vary from airline to airline, but for most intents and purposes, carry the same weight as a FAR.

Ari

So, the wireless signals interfere with safety during taxi out, but not taxi in? Sure . . .

Dissed + dismissed.

Who's the arrogant one now?

But that risk is known on taxi in but not taxi out? Puh-lease.

It is practical to use phones while waiting to takeoff. @:-)

I didn't say anything about turning phones off being "impractical," but that doesn't seem to matter to you since this seems to be a pet peeve . . .

gatorray

An interesting quote from a blog written by an FA:

"Did you know that for my little aircraft, when a passenger texts or emails someone on a blackberry, an error message comes up on the screen in the cockpit. I have had the pilots call me right before and right after takeoff to do a walk through to try and find the blackberry that is still on."

Wonder what the little aircraft is.

Forgot to add that this was on the Through the lens blog. Doesn't seem to be very accurate, if you read the comments.

magiciansampras

Hubris and arrogance among pax is a huge pet peeve of mine, you're right. I love all the armchair engineers and armchair administrators who think they know better. It's great that you saw that Mythbusters episode, but it doesn't make you an expert in anything, bub.