Passenger removed for using phone
 

I was on Ua 922 today. Door closed, safety briefing.... FA walks down aisle to check belts. Tells a passenger to shut his phone off. Didn't hear his exact response but sounded like he says he's not really talking on it or something. She says "excuse me?" Heads to cockpit. Door opens. Plane door opens. Pilot says we have to take care of a matter. Ground agents come on and ask man to deplane, which he does without a fuss. First time I've seen this.... And I've seen worse abusers of phones later in takeoff process than this...

glad they are finally addressing this problem. A few more reports of this type might actually fix this annoying issue. ^ for the FA to teach this pax a valuable lesson.

It's the normal procedure. The passenger should follow all crew instructions, otherwise, they could be offloaded before departure.
Indeed, that passenger should have finished his phone call when the doors are closed and switch it to airplane mode. ( US Federal Law ) The safety briefing takes around 3-4 minutes. He had 5 minutes to hang up his call and go texting instead as audio calls from the airplane Wi-Fi is not either permitted. I don't want to misjudge that passenger but probably he had money to spend on a walk-in ticket for the next flight to his final destination.

completely disagree. Door is closed - phones are off. FA comes by and tells you to do that and you do anything other than immediately complying ... offloading should be the answer IMO.

That was pretty much the situation....

These should be the same for United flights. This image is from the American Way Magazine May 2019 edition.


https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...ec49a589ee.jpg

Was the guy taking on his phone? Was it obviously not in airplane mode?

You haven't had to turn your phone off on a plane in... what? 6 years?

It's the same for United. The image below is taken from the Hemispheres Magazine March 2019 edition.

https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...6c116caa5.jpeg

:)

I suspect the FA was reacting to what was said, which was obviously not innocuous.

Or it was 99.999% innocuous and the FA was offended by the 0.001%.

EDIT: wait a second. I may have flown with this FA before. I was on IAH to RDU and my seatmates across the aisle were chatting as we taxied to the runway.

FA comes by and asks in an uppity tone "Are you on your PHONE?!?!?!?!!?!?!?!?!"

My seatmates glare at the FA. "Uh, no?"

The FA walks away, ashamed she couldn't power trip as hard as she fantasized.

I would hope it was more egregious than simply "in a minute" as a response to "please turn off your phone". I get the desire to have everyone comply with the law, even one that isn't actually meaningfully reducing risk, but the potential for massive amounts of wasted time for all passengers if airlines start returning to the gate every time a passenger doesn't flip to airplane mode immediately isn't something I look forward to.

OP, can you please clarify. Was that passenger speaking on the phone, or using his phone for another purpose such as texting, listening to music, etc...?

I doubt there is any confusion about Airport Mode of smartphones. However, I suspect many of us have watched people continuing to text, scanning FB or perhaps continue listening to conference calls after the door has closed -- quietly slipping their phones out of sight as the FAs walk by. It is sort of interesting to watch adults act like 8-year-olds hiding a cookie.

Whether or not we agree or understand the reasons for the airplane mode only after the doors closed (and best for other forums to discuss), it is an FCC/FAA requirement and the FAs are bound to enforce the regs.

So in this case, it is impossible to comment on this particular situation without knowing what was said or what exactly the passenger was doing.

In theory yes, in practice c'mon. I never go to airplane mode nor do most people around me as we continue to text and scroll through Instagram well after pushback from gate. Every now and then a FA gently reminds us to go to airplane mode and I comply with that until the FA is out of sight.

Most FAs do absolutely nothing to enforce airplane mode and they are not penalized for it. There is no incentive for any FA to enforce the reg other than twisted personal satisfaction from power tripping and ruining somebody's travel plans.

I've seen guys continue talking on their phone as we were taxiing and only put it away after the plane rotated. Happy to see the FA take some action in this case and hope it gets publicized more than Dao throwing a hissy fit.

It's power tripping to request complaince to the rules -- announced as the doors are closing on 99% of fights?

Yes, because it is against the norm to request compliance with the rules. (EDIT: in this case "requesting compliance" with consequences i.e. offloading, not merely a verbal request to shut off a phone without regard for whether the phone is actually shut off.)

The vast majority of FAs do not care at all. Thus, the minority that do are seen as power trippers.

Best I could tell, I was 2 rows up, he was talking, but said something like " everybody else has their phone on too ..."

I didn't know why I didn't share this in the first plan, but I had a similar experience in the past.

It was a SunExpress flight from Izmir to Istanbul SAW back in 2015.
After doors were closed and the safety demo was done, the crew came in for the final check.
I was texting on WhatsApp while the crew passed by, the crew asked me if my phone was on airplane mode. I said yes
Then he said, "Sir, you're on WhatsApp as I see" ( translation from Turkish ), I told him that I would switch to airplane mode immediately, then I have switched my phone on airplane mode and he continued the check on other passengers.

Boom, the cabin crew was completely right to kick that passenger out.

If he was talking and FA asked him to go to Airplane mode and he mouthed off - good riddance, he can fly the next plane

What happens in an emergency - this guy is the one who blocks the aisle getting his oversized duffle bag out cause he is speshul. If he can't seem to follow basic instructions then he can catch a greyhound, you can have your phone on gate to gate

eh, he should have said no, got dragged off, and become a millionaire.

I'd definitely stay in my seat if only to force a departure delay

I personally am glad that this happened. It is a standard announcement. Don't like the rule? Then don't fly. Irrespective of whether you think the rule is valid.

I like how someone commented if you can't follow the simple rule of switch your phone to airplane mode then what happens when you are told to leave your carryon if you need to leave the plane in an emergency (I still get the chills when I think of the Aeroflot flight a couple of weeks ago where people at the front of the plane took their carryon off the plane while others burnt to death).

Flying is not mandatory but switching your phone to airplane mode when flying is - just do it. Kudos to the FA and pilot.

This is faulty. Flying is an essential form of transit in today's world. Irrespective of what you think of the phone rule, it is widely known to be a superfluous rule.

But not compulsory....don't like the rule, don't fly. Or lobby the FAA to have it changed.

Those are completely unrealistic options for the modern businessperson.

99% of flyers and FAs acknowledge the stupidity of the rule by ignoring it.

87.4% of statistics are made up.

So incredibly glad they booted the passenger

this whole thread is all speculation without knowing exactly what the passenger said or was doing. If he had the phone in airplane mode and just said something like "No, it's in airplane mode" the the FA was out of line. If he was yapping away on the phone (like I've seen people do while on the runway or during the safety demo right in front of an FA), the the FA was within her right/duty. It may have been excessive since you typically don't get kicked off for that, but it's certainly within her right. Assuming a "normal" FA, I'd assume the passenger gave her some rude remark that ticked her off enough to get rid of the passenger. But who knows

I always, as in every single time, turned my phone completely off prior to boarding, to be turned back off after exiting the aircraft at destination. And you know what, my life was no worse off for it and I didn't miss a thing.

Consider that the captain had to approve of this as well. So unless she lied the conduct/response was not something mild.

Two flights ago there was a woman yelling into her phone "I can't hear you! The #$@#ing safety video is playing!"

One can say this about liquid over 3oz on plane, taking off shoes (if not Pre-Check), or even speed limits (as cars/roads are designed for safe driving way above 65 mph) but unless one flies a private plane or helicopter (avoiding roads) - we should be good citizens in society and follow the rules to avoid chaos.

Uh, nope.

Pretty sure it's another power trip by an FA. Thanks for playing, though!

Pretty sure it's more likely a troglodyte passenger than it is a power tripping FA.