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Kicked Off the Plane for Games

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Renegade:
Well, a caution about flying with American Airlines I suppose...

http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/story/2011/12/07/arts-baldwin-flight.html

A flight attendant was the subject of a Twitter tirade from Alec Baldwin after the actor was booted from an American Airlines plane at Los Angeles International Airport for playing a word game on his cellphone as the plane was about to depart for New York.

The 30 Rock actor was playing a game called Words with Friends while the plane idled at a gate Tuesday, said Baldwin's spokesman, Matthew Hiltzik.

"He loves Words with Friends so much that he was willing to leave a plane for it," said Hiltzik, who added that Baldwin boarded another American Airlines flight to New York.
--- End quote ---

And this just after China Airlines has come out with laptops and whatever do not pose any problems. (I forget the reference. Saw it in the news a week or so ago.)



I wonder if he'll be labeled as a terrorist...

40hz:
From the article it sounds like a little bit more went on than him simply sitting quietly and playing a game. Sounds more like he lost it some if the airline personnel are telling the truth with their account of what happened.

Oh well. He got a new flight. The flight he was on saw him off the plane. And nobody got arrested - so no police were called in.

I'd call it even - and be grateful I wasn't on that plane.  ;D

Renegade:
Meh...

I'm not really all that sympathetic with the airlines.

There's zero evidence to show that playing a game on a phone will cause any sort of interference with any of the planes systems, and the airlines haven't put any effort into it. Instead, it's easier to make a rule/law/mess of it and piss people off. Heck, that creates jobs because you can employ more security and put more people in prisons... But I digress...

Air travel has become one of the most unpleasant experiences. The airlines have fed into it as well, rather than fighting bad legislation. They've taken the path of least resistance. Heck, if it's a PITA to travel with any airline, there's no competitive disadvantage for anyone and no motive or incentive to make things any better.

Sitting at a gate, and having someone repeat some idiotic drivel about how the plane will crash and the end of the world will come... god... Can you blame the guy for being pissed at having to put up with that? Especially when it really and truly is drivel?

Mind you, this is the same industry that thinks it's ok to sexually assault children...  :-\

f0dder:
Words with Friends kinda implies(*) it's not a single-player game. Not being single-player, it means WiFi (hardly in the plane) or cellular data traffic. I haven't got a link handy, but I recall a report that showed that while on modern planes, radio interference shouldn't be a problem, there's some serious problems on older and not so well shielded planes.

(*): no, I haven't checked.

Stoic Joker:
There's zero evidence to show that playing a game on a phone will cause any sort of interference with any of the planes systems, and the airlines haven't put any effort into it. Instead, it's easier to make a rule/law/mess of it and piss people off. Heck, that creates jobs because you can employ more security and put more people in prisons... But I digress...-Renegade (December 07, 2011, 04:53 PM)
--- End quote ---

Right up there with banning the use of cellphones by a gas pump because some idiot thought they might cause a fire.

@f0dder - Yes I know you have a valid point with the older plane shielding, but iirc it was a close to a chaos theory series of events that had to fall into place before anything could be registered let alone actually affected. (that and it's more fun to rip on the airlines).

Honestly I think the electronic ban has less to do with interference and much more to do with ensuring there are no remote triggering devices on or near the aircraft.

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