ATA Airlines Has Man Arrested over Safe iPhone Use by Alice Turner
13:55, October 14th 2007
http://www.efluxmedia.com/news_ATA_Airlines_Has_Man_Arrested_over_Safe_iPhone_Use_09596.html A man named Casey wrote Consumerist and told his awkward story which involves ATA Airlines, an iPhone and a rather bad Jennifer Love Hewitt movie, I Know What You Did Last Summer (1997). Apparently, this Casey guy was flying on an ATA Airlines flight to Hawaii and was listening to music on his iPhone, which was set in the special "airplane mode" that most new phones have.
At some point, about half through the 5-hour flight, Casey got bored of the music and started the above-mentioned movie, "I know what you did last summer." The movie runs about 100 minutes, and about 3/4 through a flight attendant warned him that cell phones are prohibited in airplanes. The passenger explained that the cell phone part of the iPhone is actually safely switched off but the attendant again said "you have to stop using it" and walked on.
Casey decided to ignore the "command" and went back at watching his movie. Eventually, things escalated after the attendant returned and started yelling, refusing to yield to reason and claiming "You have to do anything I say, I am going to have you arrested." Yet, all along the fight, the plane's staff failed to provide any reasonable explanation why he couldn't use the iPhone while everyone else was using their electronic devices (iPods, laptops, etc). Apparently, he was breaking a "FAA rule" which says you can't talk on a cell phone. The only problem with that is Casey never talked on his iPhone.
Police was summoned when the plane landed and they eventually allowed Casey to leave free, to the attendant's much dismay. Fortunately, the policemen responding to the call had much more brains than the ATA Airlines' employee. Casey tried to pursue the cause with ATA which, quite expectedly, failed to respond.
It's no surprise to anyone that silly things like this are possible. In fact, they became an everyday matter. When it comes to airlines (especially after 9/11), silly is the word of the day. It may well be that a real threat could now slip right through much easier while they are busy harassing normal people.
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This is the problem with power - it goes to people's heads. The TSA and airline people think they are Jack Baeur, when in reality, they could all be working at McDonald's - for the skill requirements.
