Allowing airline passengers to make cellphone calls in-flight is asking for trouble, lawmakers said Tuesday as a House panel approved a bill to ban such calls.
The bill — passed without opposition by the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee — requires the Department of Transportation to issue regulations prohibiting such calls.
The bill has no impact on the Federal Aviation Administration’s decision late last year to allow passengers to email, text, surf the Internet and download data using smartphones and other personal electronic devices during takeoffs and landings.
Phone calls are another matter. Both Republican and Democratic House members, some of the nation’s most frequent flyers, said they believe in-flight calls would be noisy and disturbing to other passengers and possibly disruptive.
“Most passengers would like their flights to go by as quickly and quietly as possible,” Rep. Bill Shuster, R-Pa., the committee’s chairman and sponsor of the bill, said. “When it comes to cellphones on planes, tap don’t talk.”
The bill is a response to moves late last year by the Federal Communications Commission to remove the long-standing prohibition on in-flight calls.
Shuster emphasized that he doesn’t fly between Washington and his district, but said he was “looking out for” his congressional colleagues.
(AP)
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3 Responses
This proposed legislation strikes me a premature at best. The use of wireless communication devices (cell phones, i-pads et al) has only recently been permitted by the Federal Aviation Administration, and each airline is permitted to make its own rules about use of these devices. I think that there are far more important issues for Congress to address than what amounts to a courtesy issue that the airlines can figure out for themselves. And, just to reveal my prejudices, I hate being near anyone talking on a cell phone; I am sure that sitting next to a cell-yakker on a plane would be torture, and I am a liberal who generally thinks that government regulation can be helpful. But this is surely one instance where the time for Congressional action is, at best, in the future, when it becomes clear that the airline crews and passengers cannot address the problem adequately.
Yeah, this is ridiculous. How about a federal law banning talking in libraries? Or Starbuck’s? Hey, I was in the doctor’s office yesterday, and a guy in the waiting room was talking loudly to his wife–should I call my congressman?
congress wants to prohibit cell phones from calling while flying in commercial aircraft because it may disturb a fellow passenger. WOW. What is next? All men must be awakened if they are snoring. Or perhaps they should not be permitted to take off their shoes on a plane. etc. etc.
It is time for the legislators to start thinking how to solve the deficit, stop spending fortunes on killing machines and lower taxes and increase employment etc.