Three plane passengers arrested for not turning off their mobile phones
By Dusan Belic on Monday, January 21st, 2008 at 3:18 PM PST In General
Three passengers on an Alitalia flight have been arrested for refusing to switch off their mobile phones, leading to captain’s decision to abort take-off. According to Italian media, captain of the flight, about to take off Saturday from Milan, asked three times for passengers to shut off their phones after he found the aircraft navigation system was affected by cell phone signals. Three individuals involved were identified and police arrested them. They are confronted with the prosecution for violating safety regulations and will face up to three months in jail if found guilty…
Now, I’ll only add that I agree with the action taken. While we at IntoMobile argue people should be able to use their mobile phones for SMS and data services while flying, we do understand taking off and landing are the exceptions to what will hopefully become the rule. And even when it becomes the rule, I guess we’ll still have to switch our phones off on the start and the end of the flight.
[Via: textually.org]
Good for the Captain.
Too many selfish types out there who think only their needs matter. Plus the ignorant ones who don’t believe their device can interfere.
Ever hear GSM buzz noise over your speakers? Just imagine that noise times a hundred if everyone left their phone on inside a metal tube… all over the poor pilot’s headphones. Believe me, it happens.
…so, the plane’s sensors know when there is a cell phone interfering with it’s systems? I personally find this hard to believe, but I guess to some degree it must be true since they were able to tell that “someone” had their device on.
But yes, it was very selfish of those individuals to hold the flight up because they just -had- to use their phones at that point in time.
Wow, that’s interesting. I’m glad they kicked them off too. I’m not sure about 3 months in jail, but anyway.
Why the hell wouldn’t they just turn off their phones? What kinds of freaks are they? Personally I love an excuse to turn the damned thing off.
Worse than a phone which is already on, at ground… Is a phone being turned on and a phone looking for a network, that’s where a phone will emit stronger blasts and impulses…
Imagine everyone turning on their phones the instant they turn off the “No Phone” sign!
But, though he’s right to kick em off the plane for safety (there’s no zero-risk), I doubt the captain saw anything on instrumentation, and modern planes are pretty well RF immuned (and they use alot of fiber optics now too)
I’m glad they were arrested! I have been on several flights recently where other passengers seem to think the rules don’t apply to them, and they continue using their phones and BlackBerry devices during takeoff, mid-flight, and during landing. I’m not interested in taking a 30,000 foot fall for someone else’s rudenes! I asked someone sitting next to me to turn theirs off during landing, and they looked at me like I was in the wrong…and kept using it…