Sometimes you’re on a plane and you feel like you desperately need to call someone. We’ve become so attached to our devices that to be deprived of using them for a couple hours seems like an outlandish inconvenience. And when you’re on that plane and feeling disconnected, it can be pretty stressful.
But can you imagine what it would be like if everyone on the plane was allowed to talk on their cellphones inflight? Not just you, but everyone around you, including that guy with the foghorn voice two rows behind you? Yeah, that’s stress.
Well the U.S. Congress seems to have thought this through as well (not a sentence you see a whole lot of these days), and they think inflight cellphone usage is a bad idea. They see arguments and fights erupting over dozens of tiny phone conversations happening at 30,000 feet. And now, 77 members of Congress have sent a letter to the Federal Communications Commission and other federal regulators, urging the government to continue to ban voice calls on commercial flights. Currently, they are banned, but the FCC is considering lifting the ban. The Representatives are concerned about possible disruptions in flights. Their letter states:
“Arguments in an aircraft cabin already start over mundane issues, like seat selection, reclining seats and overhead bin space, and the volume and pervasiveness of voice communications would only serve to exacerbate and escalate these disputes”
Which seems like a fair point. The last thing we need when flying is an increase in passengers getting into it with each other.
The FCC is continuing to look into whether to lift that ban. We’ll have to wait and see if Congress has any success in holding the line.
Image from LA Times.
