Støtt flygere og cabin crew: Ingen mobilsamtaler i fly

Pilots, flight attendants, say 'no' to cellphone chitchat

While the Federal Communications Commission thought letting people chitchat on cellphones was a swell idea, and the U.S. Department of Transportation felt otherwise, there was no mistaking during Thursday's back and forth what people who fly the planes think.

Bad idea.


Pilots like everybody to be happy back there as passengers squeeze into seats and have others recline into their personal space. Pilots do not need anything else - like somebody shouting into the phone so hard-of-hearing Aunt Shirley can get every word - to rile people.

If approved, the new rules would mean consumers could use their data plans to surf the Web or send e-mails and texts once a plane reaches 10,000 feet. But flights would remain free of the cacophony of people jabbering into their phones.

Perhaps the most vocal opponents of such chitchat were the flight attendants who work cabins filled with 200-400 potential cellphone callers.

"This would make them mediators between passengers," said Corey Caldwell of the Association of Flight Attendants. "Flight attendants' first responsibility is safety. They're there to ensure that the cabin is maintained as a secure, calm environment."

Caldwell, spokeswoman for a group that represents 60,000 flight attendants, called approving phone conversations "a very bad idea."


"The FCC is only looking at this from a technology point of view," she said. "The DOT had to evaluate the rest of the issues. It causes an extreme nuisance for passengers."