Passenger using cell phone in flight
 

What to do if a passenger seated close to you starts using his cell phone while in the air?

(I stared at him until he asked me what I wanted. My answer was, I would appreciate him following the rules.)

I have and will continue to make the FA aware of the transgression and if pushed I walk up to the chatter and loudly tell them to turn off their phone while in flight ... have had great success with both!

I watched a guy continue to use his blackberry to send email from gate through to the first few minutes of flight today, despite being told 3x to stop using it by FA.

I think the FAs should be within their right to take the device away.

they can kick you off the flight, but often the person will stop for a few minutes until the plane is away from the jet way.

This was shortly before landing, more or less on final approach.

With seat belts on, and the (single) FA (on this CRJ) already strapped. So, no way to call him, which I would obviously have done otherwise.

I often use my Blackberry in flight to catch up on email (but I just save everything as drafts and transmit them once I'm at the airport). The radio is off the whole time, but I have seen people give me weird looks (probably those who don't understand that you can use it without it being in transmit mode).

In the case I described, the guy was actually talking on his phone.

I have seen an LH FA walk up to a Pax yakking on a phone, snatch it out of their and flip it shut. The Pax was told to turn it off three times prior to this event.

After the door shut, as we pushed from the gate at JFK, once or twice more on taxi, and then as we made the left turn to the runway she walked up, grabbed it out of his hand and snapped it shut. He was pissed and yelling at her, she just walked off with the phone.

I say.....Good For Her!

Although we can debate whether the use of wireless and other electronic devices really does represent a significant risk, what is a fact is that this person was not simply violating airline policy but breaching Transport Canada regulations (both the use of the device and refusing to follow the lawful instructions of the crew). For that the person should be thankful that a more significant consequence than a temporary confiscation of the device didn't occur.

A Calgarian, no doubt...:p

Undoubtedly.

FWIW, actually, he was speaking French on the phone.

Seriously though, has the use of cell phones really been determined to be a problem? I thought they were considering exclusive agreements with certain mobile providers.

What? Nobody speaks French in YYC? :eek: :p