Airline insecurity

SO THERE there I was, sitting on a flight to Durban the other week and listening to my iPod when a very odd thing happened.

Across the aisle another passenger was watching a movie on an iPhone when the flight attendant, rather curtly, told the poor man to put his phone away.

Obviously perplexed, the guy tried to explain that it was in airline mode and that all the radios on the phone were actually turned off.

I, mistakenly, assumed that she was simply unfamiliar with the concept of airline mode and tried to help out by explaining what that meant. I am not sure that this was useful, but I felt compelled to come to the aid of a fellow technology user in the face of an apparent technophobic assault.

The attendant was, however, having none of this. Taking a rather stern tone, she told him that SAA did not allow any phones to be turned on during flights and that he was to put his away immediately.

With a clear look of disgust on his face, he put the phone away.

My turn next

The attendant then turned her attention to my iPod touch. I hastily explained that it was just a normal iPod and that there was no reason why I shouldn't be allowed to use it.

I find it astounding that in this day and age an airline that should know better is forcing customers to put away cellphones, even If they are in airline mode.

For those that have not had any experience, an airline mode kit works in a similar way to putting your phone on silent - it turns off all the radios on a phone, allowing users to continue reading their e-mail, listening to music or playing games on their phones without posing any danger to fellow-passengers.

That is, of course, if you discount the annoyance you may cause when the flight attendant is trying to ask you which meal you want and your headphones are implanted as deeply into your ear canals as possible, to drown out the screams of the two-year-old in the seat behind you.

As more people start to upgrade to the latest generation of smartphones and more of them start using mobile devices to conduct business, there is going to an increasing number of people wanting to use their phones on planes.

Criminalising the innocent

I can almost understand why the airline would ban use of phones under any circumstances on a plane. Short of doing a check on each phone in use, they have to trust that everyone's phone is actually in airline mode.

However, considering that there are airlines in the world that are actually letting people use their cellphones in-flight, it seems crazy that it isn't possible to allow the use of phones in airline mode.

The even crazier part of this is that my iPod touch has WiFi and so does virtually every laptop computer. SAA doesn't seem to have any problem with people using them in-flight, so what's the difference between someone using a cellphone and leaving their WiFi on?

The answer is that this is just a petty bureaucratic rule making an ordinary cellphone owner a criminal in the eyes of overly officious flight attendants, who really should keep their topics down to "chicken or beef?" or "Coke or whiskey?".

Because after being told that you can't use a mobile device in-flight, you sure as hell are going to need a stiff drink.

- Fin24.com