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Flight Attendants Want Stricter Gadget Rules Reinstated

stephendavion writes You might be super happy to toil away on your phone or tablet the entire time you're on a plane, but not everyone is pleased to see your face buried in your device during takeoff and landing. The Federal Aviation Administration's new, more relaxed rules on gadget use aren't sitting well with one group — flight attendants. According to a report from The Wall Street Journal, the nation's largest flight attendant union is now suing the FAA to have the ban on gadget use during takeoff and landing reinstated. The Association of Flight Attendants-CWA argues that the change has caused many passengers to ignore flight attendants' emergency announcements, and that the new rules violate federal regulations requiring passengers to stow all items during takeoff and landing.

6 of 406 comments (clear)

  1. Do it like a virgin by MorbidBBQ · · Score: 4, Informative

    Virgin Airlines has a video instead of flight attendants do the safety spiel.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DtyfiPIHsIg

    Time for other airlines to get with the times.

    1. Re:Do it like a virgin by jandrese · · Score: 3, Informative

      United has a cheesy video too, where the presenter is in a bumpy taxi talking about seatbelts and on a beach talking about stowing tray tables and putting your seats in their full upright and locked position for takeoff. It's only on planes that have video screens though, on smaller and older planes you get the traditional spiel.

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  2. Re:That's not the reason you're being ignored. by TheRaven64 · · Score: 3, Informative

    Well, thank you for clarifying that you need to be entertained during your briefing of safety procedures that exist to save your life.

    I've flown a depressing amount over the last couple of years. United actually does have pretty entertaining security briefing (although they're less funny the fifth time you've seen them in a week), but they insist on showing you a couple of minutes of adverts after telling you to pay attention for the important security briefing, but before showing the security briefing. If you want people to pay attention, then ban airlines from showing ads before the briefing, because after being advertised to for a couple of minutes, you can bet that I've unplugged my noise-cancelling headphones from the jack and am reading a book until they put the screen back under my control again...

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    I am TheRaven on Soylent News
  3. Re:That's not the reason you're being ignored. by beelsebob · · Score: 5, Informative

    I'll take my chances that even if I did brace for impact it wouldn't make a significant difference in my survival or chance of injury.

    Actually, the brace position does have a huge effect on your survival of a crash landing. It stops your head accelerating rapidly forward, and then backward relative to your body. That illiminates a whole huge class of possible brain injuries.

  4. Re:That's not the reason you're being ignored. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    during take off and landing the rule has always been stow everything seats up belts on.

  5. Re:That's not the reason you're being ignored. by green1 · · Score: 5, Informative

    I have always wondered whether or not it's a lie that if the oxygen bag doesn't inflate that it's still working. It sounds like a load of BS meant to prevent you from freaking out, and fighting with the person next to you who has obviously got a working mask.

    Actually it's quite possible. As an EMT, when we give patients oxygen with a mask with a similar bad attached, the bag doesn't always inflate on it's own. Basically the bag inflates if the delivery of oxygen exceeds the amount you're consuming, and deflates if you use more than it's providing. It works as a way of providing a constant flow through fluctuations in demand and/or supply. If the mask isn't sealed well to your face, or if you're hyperventilating because the airplane is crashing and you're not in favour of this particular outcome to your flight, the bag will likely stay deflated, even though you're still getting oxygen through the mask.
    When we're giving a mask to a patient, we actually block the oxygen flow for a few seconds before giving it to them to force the bag to inflate, and if they're managing to suck the bag flat we'll turn up the supply until it stays inflated, however our goal is to increase oxygen for someone with breathing difficulties, the airline's goal is simply to provide adequate oxygen to simulate the normal amount you'd have if you weren't in an unpressurized plane at 36,000ft.