Friday, March 29, 2024

The Journal of Steffanie Rivers: Too Much Of A Good Thing

steffanie rivers
Steffanie Rivers

*When I first became a flight attendant, passengers were required to turn off and put away all electronic devices, including cell phones. So it was easy to tell who was compliant and who wasn’t.

The FAA said cell phone transmissions could interfere with communication between air traffic control and the cockpit during takeoff and landing.

Now passengers don’t have to turn off hand-held personal electronic devices (PED), such as smart phones. They’re only required to put them in airplane mode, which stops them from making phone calls, sending or receiving other transmissions.

That way the devices still can be used to play games or view downloaded audio and video files. God forbid people lose access to all of that for a few hours!

It makes it hard for flight attendants to confirm if the device is in airplane mode. When we walk through the aisle and see people fixated on their text screens with fingers furiously typing or they’re scrolling through their social media page after the “airplane mode” announcement has been made, flight attendants can either trust that passengers are in airplane mode (and not a threat to the safe takeoff or landing of an aircraft full of people) or we can act like cell phone Nazis and make them prove it while we look over their shoulder. I know crew members who take the Nazi route. Yet, if everybody did that the plane never would take off, because that’s an all-day job.

In case you haven’t heard, last week Samsung recalled millions of Galaxy 7 Notebook devices due to at least thirty reports of smart phone battery explosions that caused fires. Now the FAA wants flight attendants to tell people with G7N smart phones to turn them off and not to charge them on board the airplane until the issue has been corrected!

What’s a flight attendant to do, walk through the aisle with a bag collecting all G7Ns before takeoff? The FAA also has warned passengers not to put the Samsung smartphones in their checked bags, because – apparently – the battery could catch fire even when its not in use.

Just the other day I thought I saw a passenger talking on his cell phone in the middle of the flight.

Are you talking on your phone?” I asked him.

Yes,” he told me. “It’s a wi-fi phone call.” He continued his phone conversation as if his explanation was all that needed to be said.

I’m not the most tech-savvy person. So, I checked my company rule book and conferred with another flight attendant about it. Then I asked the passenger to step to the back of the aircraft for a private conversation with me. That’s when he told me he was making a telephone call through What’s App, using wi-fi. Of course, wi-fi is allowed during flights. But phone calls, regardless of how they are transmitted, are not allowed. I told him that and asked him not to make any more phone calls during the flight. Whatever happened to reading a good old fashioned library book?

Between serving food and drinks, checking for terrorists, keeping up with the latest technology, preparing for the worst while hoping for the best and now policing what type of smart phones passengers are using for fear it might ignite, my vacation can’t get here soon enough.

Steffanie is a freelance journalist living in the Dallas, Texas metroplex. Email her at [email protected] for comments, questions and speaking inquiries.

 

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