First Cellphone Use On Airplane Given OK

s31523 writes "With over 1 billion cell phone users worldwide, and with so many business travelers, using the cell phone on the airplane has been a recent hot topic. Emirate airlines is announcing they will give the OK for cell phone use on their planes, making them the first airline to do so. The FCC and FAA still ban the use, but are working to determine safety implications, if any."

Comments

To those confused

[MindStalker]

To those confused, the real problem with cell phone use on airplanes is that you are traveling so fast that you are switching towers once every minute or so. One person is fine, millions doing it (which is what would happen if legal) would be a HUGE strain on cell phone networks. Airlines are installing cellphone tower equipment into their plane to eliminate this problem.

That is all class.

Re:To those confused

[fdrebin]

The other problem will be ME going postal when the impolite person sitting next to me yaks and yaks for 5 hours straight on a flight.

OK, I won't have a firearm, but I am large, strong, and will have become extremely psychotic.

/F

Keep the ban for the sake of quiet

[Retired Replicant]

I don't care if they determine that there is no need to ban cellphones because of interference with plane electronics -- I'd still rather the ban is kept anyway in order to keep flights from turning into cacophonous gab-fests. Flights are already uncomfortable and headache-inducing anyway...lets not make them noisy as well.

Re:Considering the way. . .

[TheRaven64]

You will be communicating with via a cell inside the plane. This leaves you with two choices:

1. Pay a huge premium for the privilege of using the plane's cell, or
2. Pay a huge premium for using the phone installed in your seat.

Either way, it's likely to be so expensive that only real idiots would use it just to say "Hello! I'm on the plane!" I've flown quite a lot this year, and I don't think anyone used the in-seat phones on any flight I was on.

Bring back separate sections...

[LGV]

...only this time instead of smoking/non-smoking, we need cell phone and non-cell phone sections. Or better yet, talking and no talking sections.

Re:Earplugs won't work...

[Admiral Ag]

The problem with this is the sheer number of selfish assholes in the world. It's bad enough on trains, but being stuck on a long haul flight with these bastards would be too much.

I would never dream of holding a loud phone conversation in a quiet restaurant, or recklessly endangering people by using one while driving, or holding up a store queue by answering my phone while at a counter, or leaving the ringer on during a symphony or an exam because "my calls are important".

Yet I have seen all these things happen over and over again. The worst thing is that the people who do them have such a sense of entitlement that they believe they are doing nothing wrong, and that you are an asshole for objecting to their sociopathic behaviour.

I want to start a new political movement. Every time someone does something like this, you take their phone and smash it. Violence against the people who do it is also fully justified.