United Airlines flight turns back over passenger's phone use

Having said all that, not using cell/mobile phones in aircraft has more to do with operational issues of mobile networks than aircraft safety. The cell companies asked FAA to ban it to avoid networks going crazy in the early days when so many flights with people using cell phones that could ‘see’ dozens – may be even a hundred+, cell sites at the same time.

Personally I get a little irked at how people including aircrew treat this as if the plane will fall out of the air or something. I obey mostly because of the law and its a good thing to stop people chatting on mobiles due to the nuisance value.

But there is no reason whatsoever to stop people from using mobiles when the plane is still on ground, until take off on immediately upon landing.

This whole phone panic thing reminds me of that Johnny Bravo episode with the clown on the wing …

As soon as more airlines install this here www.aeromobile.net trolley dolly phone panic should finally be a thing of the past. (And then welcome to the world of the ever twaddling blokes next to you :D)

But turning back the aircraft! :eek::rolleyes:

Are four “agents” not enough to take a phone away from a 20-year old punk?

Btw, those four “agents” shouldn’t have intervened all at the same time, as that’s the perfect opportunity to unmask them, just in case the guy is not alone and is tasked with ID’ing them.

If the crew don’t make comment, then that’s fine Paul, you’re many leagues above the numbskull mentioned in the article.
I’m sure you would have put the thing away had you been asked to 🙂

Just as bad when you’re taxiing in and you have to stop somewhere before the parking bay. All the passengers get up and start taking the luggage out of the overhead bins.

It always amazes and irritates me when people do that. The plane can stop pretty damned quick on the runway from 130 knots so it isn’t going to have a problem stopping from 20mph if it has to!

As for the phone, this muppet should be charged for the expense and inconvenience of having to turn round. If the crew ask you to turn it off then you do so, it’s that simple…

…Says me whose phone was on and even taking photos and videos throughout an entire recent flight in Russia. The crew didn’t seem too bothered. Damned thing lost signal pretty quick anyway. :rolleyes:

Paul

Just as bad when you’re taxiing in and you have to stop somewhere before the parking bay. All the passengers get up and start taking the luggage out of the overhead bins. More than once I had to have a very stern word over the P.A. and refused to continue taxi until they all sat down.

You should see it here in Nigeria. Female attendants are scared to ask them to switch off and many atime its the male crew who tell them. Mind u its the only country i know that you can buy a domestic ticket and still get on the flight 10mins after departure time.

I agree. What a fool.
I frequently see people having sneaky conversations on their phones beyond the point where they are asked to turn them off. Sometimes, they’ll finish one call and immediately take/initiate another.
I have to wonder, though, just exactly who they are talking to. Is a conversation really so important that it can’t be postponed until the plane lands?
The obvious answer, of course, is that they are talking to themselves, hoping that their fellow passengers will be impressed because their phiones show that they are very important people.

What an idiot.

Hope he has to take the boat back to the US.

Well I guess the guy asked for it …..

Stupid a$$. If you’re requested or told to do something that simple on a plane, you do it. End of.