Mobilsamtaler forbys - USA

House panel takes step toward banning phone calls on airplanes

WASHINGTON - Allowing airline passengers to make cellphone calls in-flight is asking for trouble, lawmakers said Tuesday as a House panel approved a bill to ban such calls.

The bill - passed without opposition by the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee - requires the Department of Transportation to issue regulations prohibiting such calls. The department has already said it is considering creating such a ban as part of its consumer protection role.

The bill has no impact on the Federal Aviation Administration's decision late last year to allow passengers to email, text, surf the Internet and download data using smartphones and other personal electronic devices during takeoffs and landings.

Phone calls are another matter. Both Republican and Democratic House members, some of the nation's most frequent flyers, said they believe in-flight calls would be noisy and disturbing to other passengers and possibly disruptive.

"Most passengers would like their flights to go by as quickly and quietly as possible," Rep. Bill Shuster, R-Pa., the committee's chairman and sponsor of the bill, said. "When it comes to cellphones on planes, tap don't talk."