Should cell phone calls be allowed on commercial airplane flights?
Displaying poll results.12034 total votes.
The F-15 Eagle: If it's up, we'll shoot it down. If it's down, we'll blow it up. -- A McDonnel-Douglas ad from a few years ago
I don't want to hear your call (Score:1)
I've been on the el in Chicago, and the Metro, and buses in DC, and I do NOT WANT to be locked into a cabin with some moron yelling into his phone.
Re: I don't want to hear your call (Score:4, Insightful)
Planes are usually quite not as most city trains or buses, so no need to yell (which won't prevent everyone, but the most, I guess)
I regularly ride the (Seattle area) Sounder commuter train. When it's moving, it's still generally not so loud that you have to raise your voice above a normal conversational level to be heard... but even when the thing's stopped and completely quiet, you get morons shouting into their phones - and I don't mean in anger, they're shouting a normal conversation!
I still remember one time (definitely a non-normal conversation) when I was riding the train several years ago, and this lady was making this really loud phone call. I was doing my best not to listen, but right in the middle she starts shouting - very loudly, and completely without emotion - "I'm telling you she's DEAD. I SAID SHE'S DEAD!!". It was completely bizarre.
Re: I don't want to hear your call (Score:4, Interesting)
I've always wondered if Americans shout a lot when they're at home, because they certainly tend to talk very loudly overseas. I was walking down a busy street in Kabul, Afghanistan, ten years ago with an American friend. She was talking at the usual American overseas, ear-splitting volume, which made me feel a bit self-conscious. When i suggested she might like to speak a little less loudly, she was surprised - she had no idea she was shouting. Security in Kabul wasn't too bad in those days, but foreigners did get kidnapped now and then, and it seemed smart not to draw too much attention to ourselves - particularly with an American accent.
Re: (Score:2)
Actually it's usually millennials. It has little to do with reception and more to do with the psychology of talking to someone you can't see.
Re: (Score:2)
We usually have enough money and foresight to have hearing aids, and culturally sensitive enough not to make annoying habits public.
Usually. The exception is when we want retribution on some annoying millennial. ;)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Signal:Noise Improvement Needed (Score:2)
This gets fed into by the sound quality--phone calls tend to have absolutely shoddy sound quality, and sometimes about the only way to get understood on the other end or understand them is to increase the volume. I don't pretend to understand how and why, audio & auditory perception is not my field, but I'm very much on board with the people who think that it's well past time we ought to take advantage of tech improvements to raise the quality of audio over phone lines.
Mostly, admittedly, because I am
You don't want to hear my call (Score:5, Insightful)
So, you'd like the government to legislate good manners? Why single out phone conversations, then — why not ban all talk? If you wish for the law to protect you from people talking, why not also cover screaming babies?
Would you also — based on your experiences — back measures mandating the use of deodorant and other aspects of personal hygiene? How about other people's choice of clothing — should women above certain age be legally allowed to wear miniskirts, for example? And, oh, almost forgot, food! Would you not like to ban certain foods — be it tuna [theonion.com] or curry or whatever else?
Various train operators in the US now have this wonderful idea of "quiet car" [xojane.com] — perhaps, airlines would offer a quiet section too, when the legal obstacles (based on bogus [livescience.com] claims of "interference" with plane's systems) are finally removed... Long overdue.
Re: (Score:2)
I believe that there was interference back in the day. My iDen handset would make my PC's speakers 'tic tic tic' right before a call. I wouldn't want that thing on an airplane...
Additionally to that there is an issue with tower spread. A phone on a plane will hit way more towers than a land based phone will. IIRC that puts a weird kind of strain on the cell system that it wasn't designed for, naturally a pico tower on the plane that also requests low power mode from phones connected to it resolves that
Re: (Score:2)
Not since — at least — 1992:
In other words, this stopped being a problem even before cell-phones became a must-have and before the very term "smartphone" e
Re: (Score:2)
This may (or may not) be a problem for the Federal Communications Commission, not the Aviation.
The FCC is where the ban originated. The airlines/FAA are just enforcing the FCC ban.
Re: You don't want to hear my call (Score:2)
It was introduced to avoid broadcast storms on cell towers on the ground.
Re: (Score:1)
Cell towers back in the day could only handle a very limited number of calls. When you are in the air instead of hitting one or two towers you would hit all the t
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
Nope, you're absolutely right. Well, mostly right.
Over the last 10 years or so, I've had things on my phones that track me. Most of them also tracked what towers I connected to. I left the phones turned on accidentally a few times. Generally, in the air there weren't enough towers to attempt a conversation from. If it even connected to a tower, it would disconnect in less than a minute.
Here's a composite map of several trips in 2010. [imgur.com] There were stops at Boston, New York, DC, Atlanta, and Tampa. I thin
Re: You don't want to hear my call (Score:1)
Re: You don't want to hear my call (Score:1)
Re: You don't want to hear my call (Score:2)
Even better, ban flying. Problem solved.
Re: (Score:1)
Even better, ban flying. Problem solved.
That's pretty much what the TSA is doing. Give them a few more years, to get rid of the rest of the folks who didn't get the hint, when they insisted on either irradiating them, or groping their genitals, while throwing out their toothpaste.
Re: (Score:3)
>> why not also cover screaming babies?
I'd vote for that.
Re: (Score:2)
Sssssh! Don't give him ideas.
Re: (Score:1)
You want quiet and thin walls? Move out in the middle of nowhere.
Re: (Score:3)
You would be outlawing yourself.
Re: (Score:3)
You never screamed in the middle of the night when you were a baby?
AC would hold a rational conversation with his mother and simply explain to her that he was hungry and wanted her to place her tit in his mouth.
Re: (Score:2)
>> So, you'd like the government to legislate good manners?
Philosophically I am against the government legislating such things, but realistically, there really are many people out there who either don't even know basic manners, or are selfish enough to not give a shit about anyone else.
Given we all have to get along in this world, it makes sense to me that sadly yes there needs to be legislation that covers the worst offenders. It is exactly those few that don't have the fucking basic intelligence to
Re: (Score:2)
Don't legislate good manners, remove barriers from letting those with extremely bad manners suffer sufficient negative consequences that, if they don't figure it out, we ought to be concerned for their mental capability.
Re: (Score:2)
... so basically if someone pissses you off sufficiently, you can legally shoot them? I like your thinking. For years I've been saying we need to do something to bring back natural selection in humans
Re:You don't want to hear my call (Score:5, Insightful)
Re: (Score:2)
OK, but the airlines can also allow brief calls (e.g. to discuss flight details, make arrangements for pickup or in case of delay) while still prohibiting 4 hour conversations.
I mean, this is the informal rule on most other shared transport -- talking briefly with the wife to coordinate is fine, but long drawn out conversations are discouraged.
Re:You don't want to hear my call (Score:5, Insightful)
No, I don't want the government to do anything of the sort. I want the airlines to require good manners, just as movie theaters (those to enforce it, anyway) require you to stay off your phone during the movie. Babies are a different matter -- travel with babe-in-tow is arguably a life requirement from time to time. Bringing your precious little bundle to the movies, however, is not.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: You don't want to hear my call (Score:1)
Err. It's very, VERY easy to tell the difference between parents with a screaming baby on a flight who want it to shut up and stop annoying everyone and are making all the efforts they can towards that end (picking it up, rocking it, feeding it, hell just paying attention to it in any way at all), and the ones who don't fucking care that it's annoying the hell out of everybody else on the plane and are just ignoring it. Hey, its banshee wailing sounds like the most beautiful music in the world to THEM, so o
Re: (Score:3)
Babies have trouble equalising the pressure in their ears with cabin pressure, so are often in pain while flying. Aircraft can't be pressurised to ground level because the stress on the aircraft would be too great.
We need a technological solution to this.
Re: (Score:2)
[If you read this and yawned as a result, fist-bump to you]
*yawn*
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Gamow Bags [wikipedia.org]. Make little ones that you can pressurize the little bugger back to sea level.
Add some nitrous oxide as a secondary measure.
Re: You don't want to hear my call (Score:2)
Don't fly if you have a baby.
Re: (Score:2)
There is a technological solution to it: pressure equalizing earplugs.
Re:You don't want to hear my call (Score:4, Informative)
Why single out phone conversations, then — why not ban all talk?
Cell phone calls are infinitely more annoying than people talking because you can only hear one side of the conversation. Your brain naturally wants to fill in the other side, so it's much, much harder to tune out.
Re: (Score:3)
To me, that's not really the reason why it's so annoying. People talking on the phone tend to TALK MORE LOUDLY. That's what makes it hard to tune out...
Re: (Score:2)
That, and people almost always talk louder on a telephone.
Re: (Score:2)
Why single out phone conversations, then — why not ban all talk? If you wish for the law to protect you from people talking, why not also cover screaming babies?
Yes, please.
Re: (Score:2)
The quiet car idea is not limited to the US. You may find similar cars on high speed trains in Germany. Unfortunately, some people do not comply with it. In Italy people are encouraged to be quiet and respectful to the other passengers. Interestingly it works.
Re: (Score:2)
Actually I wand the government to make it legal to slap the shit out of rude people.
They do that, and everything will solve it's self.
Re: (Score:2)
Using a safety regulation to enforce good manners is a terrible idea and an awful precedent.
So you want to get rid of traffic lights that tell people to wait their damn turn? Or not have rules against queue-jumping? Or no-smoking areas? Or driving on the proper side of the road and within the lines? Or not driving the wrong way in traffic?
Libtard detected!
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
Driving down the correct lane on the roads and obeying traffic lights aren't good manners. It's a safety issue. Where are the rules for queue jumpers? That may be in a country of which I'm familiar. There should be no laws for smoking areas. Don't like it? Don't go there.
Libtard detected? So says the all around idiot.
Your rights end when they infringe on mine (and vise versa). Second hand smoke has been proven to carry serious health consequences. You are free to smoke in your home and car. If i visit you, I'll abide by your rules. In public, smoking should be limited to designated areas. There should probably be an exception for vaping unless studies show significant side effects for second hand vaping.
I highly doubt there are laws against queue jumping, but many places have RULES. If you queue jump at Disneyland, you
Re: (Score:1)
Re: I don't want to hear your call (Score:2)
I have no problem with calls being allowed on planes, so long as punching people who are making them is allowed.
Safety first? (Score:1)
Re:Safety first? (Score:4, Informative)
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
Missing Option (Score:5, Insightful)
Yes, but you are not allowed to talk- you insensitive clods
I don't fly... (Score:1)
Lounge area? (Score:4, Interesting)
Sedation (Score:5, Interesting)
I would pay a premium if an airline were to offer sedation flights. Receive an injection at the boarding gate. Get loaded into a tiny coffin. Wake up in the arrivals lounge of the new airport.
The airline saves money on food, air hosts, and can stack the passengers in like cordwood. I don't have to deal with crappy airline flights. Everybody wins, and the question of cell phone calls becomes moot.
Re:Sedation (Score:5, Funny)
I would pay a premium if an airline were to offer sedation flights. Receive an injection at the boarding gate. Get loaded into a tiny coffin. Wake up in the arrivals lounge of the new airport.
The airline saves money on food, air hosts, and can stack the passengers in like cordwood. I don't have to deal with crappy airline flights. Everybody wins, and the question of cell phone calls becomes moot.
Yeah, that sounds like a great idea until you consider how often airlines manage to misplace luggage, or lose it entirely.
Re: (Score:2)
I would pay a premium if an airline were to offer sedation flights. Receive an injection at the boarding gate. Get loaded into a tiny coffin. Wake up in the arrivals lounge of the new airport.
The airline saves money on food, air hosts, and can stack the passengers in like cordwood. I don't have to deal with crappy airline flights. Everybody wins, and the question of cell phone calls becomes moot.
Yeah, that sounds like a great idea until you consider how often airlines manage to misplace luggage, or lose it entirely.
Don't worry, you'll always be able to find yourself! Add to that the option to make phone calls... "Operator, please trace this call and tell me where I am!"
Re:Sedation (Score:5, Interesting)
I've thought about this and I don't think you could sign a wavier to completely absolve the airline of anything bad that might happen while you are unconscious, and nor would you want to (if they drop you on your head you want to be able to sue). But even if you overcame that, it would be medically quite challenging. Drugs have different effects on different people, and some would need much higher doses than others to remain out for 8+ hours. In hospitals there is a doctor whose only responsibility to is to keep the patient unconscious while being operated on. Even if it could be automated, people would need health checks before hand.
A more practical idea would be bunk beds. Safety is an issue but perhaps some kind of Japanese capsule-hotel style arrangement could allow people to sleep naturally, or at least be more comfortable.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Safety is an issue but perhaps some kind of Japanese capsule-hotel style arrangement could allow people to sleep naturally, or at least be more comfortable.
I agree that would be more comfortable, but having slept in a capsule-hotel, I think it would also take up more room on the airplane.
Re: (Score:2)
Call me old fashioned (and it wouldn't be the first time), but I prefer to be full awake and go through a Xray body scan.
Re: (Score:1)
Seed of terrible idea... (Score:2)
You do realize that you have just given the airlines the idea of charging for the right to make phone calls from the plane. Natural implementation would be through registering your phone number along with your credit card, and using that data to authorize your airborne call.
Or maybe they are already doing that? (I haven't flown in many years.)
(Actually, I wish they would designate specific cars on the trains where phone use is allowed. Most of the other passengers would crowd into those cars, making my trip
Even better take (Score:2)
I would pay a premium if an airline were to offer sedation flights.
I want that too but...
Receive an injection at the boarding gate. Get loaded into a tiny coffin
Why would *I* want to be sedated? Flight time is great reading time.
Instead what I want is a seat that can offer on-demand sedation. If I need it, I can ask for sedation (great option because I cannot sleep on planes). But even better, if five passengers on the plane vote to sedate someone in a specific seat, it would also instantly sedate you.
Re: (Score:2)
Someone's been watching The Fifth Element.
"allowed"? (Score:2)
At best, a cell phone will work until about 10,000 feet. Beyond that, you won't get a signal. So yeah, I'm fine with people talking on their phone at the start/end of a flight.
Or is the question meant about whether voice calls should be allowed via the in-flight WIFI?
YES! (Score:2)
Yes, people should be allowed to make calls, but only as a form of assisted suicide. They're just asking for the rest of the plane to murder them after the third loud outburst you didn't give a shit about anyway.
Oh wait, nevermind, the TSA grabbed everything we can use to murderate them. Guess we'll have to resort to "no calls" until I can bring my nail clippers on board again.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: YES! (Score:2)
Please, make all the calls you want! (Score:2)
your truly
NSA chief officer
In-flight altercations (Score:2)
Do you know how many more in-flight confrontations passengers will have? You won't need in-flight entertainment. Maybe popcorn, or a way to de-stress after your plan is diverted again to remove individuals.
Of course, this is a good excuse to install actual (soundproof) doors between first and economy classes, and charge more for the ability to sit in a quieter area.
Re: (Score:2)
Doors would also help in slowing snakes and zombies down as they spread between cabins.
Emergency Safety (Score:1)
Only if you want your cell crumpled and folded (Score:1)
And then crushed by the tray table.
In that case, go for it.
Why do people keep asking this idiotic question? (Score:1)
Re: Why do people keep asking this idiotic questio (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Makes you wonder how everyone on those 9/11 flights were able to make cell phone calls...
Phones stop working at elevations of 10,000 ft or so I've been told. I don't remember the height of the twin towers, but they definitely were much lower than that. For quite some time those planes must have been flying well within range of terrestrial mobile phone networks. Then maybe that 10k ft level is a myth, too. On the ground the range of a single tower is for sure a lot more than that.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Makes you wonder how everyone on those 9/11 flights were able to make cell phone calls...
Satellite phones.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Because the 9/11 calls were fake .. just like the elections didn't matter. Trump/Hillary are puppets. The US doesn't have a real press.
Missing Sidetone == LOUD CALLS (Score:2)
Legally, yes, but airlines should prohibit. (Score:2)
Depends what they talk about (Score:1)
Technology to enforce courtesy rules (Score:4, Interesting)
The airlines should allow calls only on the plane's built-in phones. (Not on your personal phone.) And the plane's phones can have some restrictions:
1) No call longer than 5 minutes. At 4 1/2 minutes, you get a warning. At 5 minutes, the call is automatically ended.
2) The airline's phone should allow only a certain loudness (up to 60 dB?) of sound going into it. If sounds > 60 dB go into the phone, then the phone won't send the sound of your voice to the person you're talking to. Instead, both you and the other person will hear an annoying whining sound. As soon as you stop talking loudly, that sound will stop. If a screaming baby is behind you, raising the dB going into the phone, then a flight attendant can disable this rule for you.
Re: (Score:3)
2) The airline's phone should allow only a certain loudness (up to 60 dB?) of sound going into it. If sounds > 60 dB go into the phone,
That's not going to work because the ambient noise from the engine at times can be greater than even 85dB
Re: (Score:1)
Watch A Husband for Christmas (2016) Online Free (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
Governments should not ban it. Airlines should be permitted to ban it.
This is not a significant safety issue; however, there is a market for quiet zones and talk zones. Trains already have quiet cars. I suspect that most airline passengers would prefer designated quiet areas once they've tried talk zones a few times.
I have to agree with AC. I would much prefer Airlines ban in-flight calls than for Government to pass the law. Make it an airline by airline decision. Let passengers vote with their buttocks.... like they frequently do in general elections.