US to continue ban on annoying in-flight calls

Someone in the US  government has received the message that airline passengers don’t want their fellow flyers yapping away on cell phones while in flight. That’s one reason Federal Communications Chairman Ajit Pai has proposed an order that would end the commission’s consideration of lifting a prohibition on in-flight cell phone use. The ban has been in effect since 1991. The commission has yet to formally vote on Pai’s proposal. In a statement, Pai said he stood with airline pilots and flight attendants and the traveling public in supporting a measure that would terminate the FCC’s 2013 proceeding that sought to relax rules governing mobile phone use in aircraft. “I do not believe that moving forward with this plan is in the public interest,” he said. “Taking [it] off the table permanently will be a victory for Americans across the country who, like me, value a moment of quiet at 30,000 feet.” According to USA Today, in 2014 the U.S. Department of Transportation solicited public comment as to whether to allow to voice calls aloft if the FCC dropped the ban. DOT got some 1,700 comments with a  full 96 per cent favored keeping the ban in place. Two per cent favored the ban, with exceptions for emergencies. Another two per cent argued airlines should set their own phone policies. In this latest call for public comment, passengers’ responses were cut from same cloth and an AirlineRatings review underscored the strong reaction against in-flight voice calls. Frequent flyer William Box (165,000 miles last year) of Franklin, Tennessee said he “can’t imagine the change in an aircraft’s environment” should the ban not stay in place. “Many flyers are ‘stressed’ as it is.” M.W. McSherry of Danville, Virginia could “scarcely imagine the cacophony of dozens of voices in an already noisy and cramped cabin, all straining to be heard over the ambient noise and each other…There’s no compelling public interest in allowing voice calls.” William Witter of Boulder, Colorado believed “voice calls in aircraft would dramatically harm public order on an aircraft.” Greg Marino of Loveland, Colorado asserted:  “Flying has become unpleasant enough without having to listen to the guy next to you talk loudly into his phone the entire flight.” Keeping the ban in place is more than an exercise in passenger sanity. Flight attendants contend it’s a safety matter. They’re concerned terrorists could coordinate attacks and passengers might start fighting because of a seatmate’s incessantly loud chatter.