Bob CollinsWhat’s the most obnoxious — or at least, strange — cellphone conversation you ever had to endure?
The House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee has had enough of it, approving a bill that would make the current Federal Aviation Administration and Federal Communication Commission ban on cellphone use during flight permanent.
Some of the comments during the hearing last week were at least as entertaining as the guy who sat behind me on a flight to Boston last year who jumped on the cellphone immediately after landing to tell whoever answered to “feed the fish.”
One member claimed there’s a “security issue” (the new phrase for “I’m afraid”), relaying an anecdote about a man who took pictures with his cellphone of “sensitive parts” of the airplane. What “sensitive parts” of an airplane can you see from inside an airplane? The overhead bin? The engine? The wing? Are these national secrets?
Concerns that might have seemed silly a few years ago now seem downright valid. Some lawmakers “worry that domestic airlines might try to get the cellphone ban lifted so they can charge passengers extra to sit in no-phone sections,” reported USA Today.
Of course, the airlines could test this now with a “no crying baby” section.
