It’s Now Official: Cellphone Calls Permanently Banned on US Flights
Uncle Sam, via the US Congress, has decided that the air is no place to make calls.
US Lawmakers are sick of people sitting on airplanes, talking about all sorts of private matters while waiting for the plane to taxi. After a round of story-tellingon conversations they’ve overheard in the past, the House of Representatives has voted to upgrade the FAA’s ban on in-flight cell phone usage to “Permanent” status.
On one hand, I’ve felt their pain: a few plane trips ago, a girl three seats from me was proudly divulging how sick she’d been a week prior. I’ll spare you the nitty-gritty, but it involved poop and pants. On the other, it’s not everyone’s fault that a few people can’t remember to not talk about poop in public. Taking their cell phones away isn’ going to make them any more courteous.
Not that this decision solves the issue, regardless. It only affects the in-flight period; that is, during and between take off and landing. People are still free to embarrass themselves during loading, taxiing, and unloading.
Honestly, this has to be one of the best bans this government has even enacted. Thoughts?
I know I, for one, support every government intervention into the practices of private individuals and businesses. More bans and regulations plz! Keep ‘em coming! I don’t like smoke, so NOBODY SHOULD BE ABLE TO SMOKE ANYWHERE! etc etc.
While I’m glad that people won’t be chatting on their cellphones in my flight… I’m not sure this is really proper for federal jurisdiction. It should probably be left to the airline companies as long as it doesn’t infringe on other’s safety.
So… It’ll be illegal to call to tell the person picking you up that the plane is late while you’re sitting on the runway? Seems like the kind of thing that has enough reasonable exceptions that it shouldn’t be regulated by the government.
I have never placed a call while en route on a plane… however if as Josh mentioned above that they’re going to fine me for making a call to the person picking me up to let them know we’ve landed and I’ll see them soon… well in Lehman’s terms… they can suck my cock.
There is hope to keep the government out of our private lives because this isn’t a done deal yet. The Senate needs to pass this legislation. The legislation needs to go into conference with the House version of the bill. Then they need to compromise between the 2 versions (Senate & House). Then send the compromised (nice choice of words, heh?) version of the bill back to the two chambers for another vote. Then send it to the President for his signature.
But wait! Congress is out for August vacation and then they leave Washington again in late September for campaigning. Then after the November elections they really have only about 3-4 weeks elapsed time to get anything done. So maybe the clock will run out on them. Hopefully saved again from some incredibly stupid bureaucratic rule that Congress is spending time focusing on rather than the problems we really need addressed.
Slow down folks. Take a breath and relax. It’s 3 in the morning and you’re on a long haul flight to Tokyo. Do you really want to be woken by some self-important idiot who simply must talk with the London office RIGHT NOW?!?! Because that’s what allowing cell phone calls on flights will actually mean.
People make and receive calls whilst in the movie theatres. Everyone hates it but no-one (esp the Theatres) does anything to stop it. The people who make and receive calls whilst in the movie theatres certainly don’t give a ****, so why do you think these personality types won’t be flying?
They don’t care that you’ve been flying for 22 hours from Australia to London. Their call is VERY IMPORTANT and THEY PAID GOOD MONEY FOR THEIR TICKET.