BLOG: Turn Off Your Phone When the Flight Attendant Asks

[Ed Hardy]

The latest post on the Brighthand Bytes blog begins with:

If you haven’t heard the story already, Alec Baldwin was on an American Airlines flight last week that was stuck on the tarmac for an hour. During this time, a flight attendant noticed that the actor was playing a game on his phone and asked him to turn the phone off. He refused and the situation escalated until Baldwin was thrown off the flight.

The plane in question was on the ground, still at the gate. At this point there’s no reason why passengers can’t use their phones, and the flight attendants generally announce this. So, was Baldwin correct in demanding that be able to keep playing Words with Friends?

You can read the full text of this post at:

Turn Off Your Phone When the Flight Attendant Asks - Brighthand Bytes

[jigwashere]

I agree that Alec Baldwin is a jerk and should be barred from flights. I agree that passengers must obey flight attendants' instructions. I also think this highlights how incredibly awful flying has become. Remember Steven Slater (Fed-Up Flight Attendant Makes Sliding Exit)? What about all the incidents where passengers are stuck on planes on the tarmac for hours (poor Wyrenut, for example)? Passengers have to deal with the TSA, overbooked and over packed flights, ridiculous and confusing fees, etc. The airlines really need to step back and figure this out -- flying sucks!

[Mi An]

I suggest that Baldwin be placed on the U.S. Do Not Fly list until he can prove he is mature enough to handle the situation.

Our means of keeping terror suspects off planes is now how we ensure people are mature enough to fly? Tongue in cheek I assume, and certainly silly enough to match the story.

American Airlines is not amused. It is considering taking Baldwin’s TV show 30 Rock off its in-flight entertainment system. Its Flight Attendants Union has requested that he never be allowed to fly on the company’s planes again.

My mind went where jig's went. Every time I see this story in the news, it makes me think of how miserable air travel is. I could indeed be stuck endlessly on a tarmac after being violated at security with stuffy air and little refreshment, and even though there's no reason not play a game to pass the time, I could be forced not to or ejected from the plane -- or have my flight delayed because someone else finally hits the end of their rope. I don't really need any reminders about how spoiled hollywood in general or baldwin specifically is, but American needs to get past the story fast. Unlike Alec, American actually has something to lose here. Or not, does anyone remember how big you have to be to be too big to fail?

[Hook]

It would be interesting to see how this would look if it had happened to Joe Shmoe rather than Alec Baldwin. Then you would have the story of someone stuck on the tarmac for an hour getting snappy when a demand with no really good hard science behind it is made rather than simply requesting to be sure airplane mode is on. Having it be Baldwin just makes it too easy to say he's an ass and be done with the analysis.

I agree crew members should always be treated with respect, but as has been pointed out, air travel can fray the nerves and flying has all the life affirming qualities of a prison transport. As Jig said, they need to figure this out.

And, by the way, Ed, Baldwin is a comedic actor. If he goes on a comedy show after an incident like this, he is going to make fun of it. If another comedian had gone on stage and made jokes about an incident like this, you would have probably laughed and agreed that there is a bit of absurdity in the airline policies.

[Ed Hardy]

Let's think of this from a slightly different direction. It's not Alec Baldwin vs. faceless airline. It's a spoiled celebrity taking out his frustration on some poor flight attendant who spends her life helping grumpy people jammed in a metal box thousands of feet in the air.

I can understand Baldwin's irritation, but that doesn't give him the right to act like a child and take his feelings out on someone who's trying to do her job and keep hundreds of people safe. All she wanted him to do is turn off his phone, and he threw a temper tantrum. A 50+ year-old man acting like a child, and he deserves to be treated as such.
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[lelisa13p]

Basically, everyone comes out of this story wearing a coat of FAIL. Baldwin is a notorious blowhard & d***head while the flight attendants look spectacularly ignorant, with a side order of abuse of authority.

In September I flew for the first time since 1995 and was immediately smacked face-first with examples of how the once mighty have fallen. One example: Making my way to my seat w/carry-on bag only to find that all overhead storage had already been filled (I wasn't even late, boarding when instructed.) I (and a dozen others) were told that we would have to exit the plane, go & check our bags instead, then return so as not to miss departure. The airline would graciously waive the bag-check fee. Additionally, I had a new suitcase which in the hurry of leaving had not been distinctively marked since I thought it wasn't leaving my person. After landing, imagine trying to ID a medium-sized black bag as it twirls around a carousel with no distinguishing features along with 100+ more just like it? At 50 minutes, locating the bag took almost as long as the flight.

Where were the "conscientious" flight attendants when passengers were stuffing their extra carry-on bags into my purchased space? Oh, wait, they were policing cellphone game use?

[Mi An]

I agree crew members should always be treated with respect, but as has been pointed out, air travel can fray the nerves and flying has all the life affirming qualities of a prison transport.

AHHHHHahahahaha. Emoticons cannot convey my appreciation of the above.

Let's think of this from a slightly different direction. It's not Alec Baldwin vs. faceless airline. It's a spoiled celebrity taking out his frustration on some poor flight attendant who spends her life helping grumpy people jammed in a metal box thousands of feet in the air.

And now let's think about how fun it will be to be the next person to have to be kind and respectful to that poor flight attendant even when s/he's either not doing hir job or is doing it wrong. During the holiday rush. That almost makes hours on the highway with a phone full of Science Friday and fleabag motels seem palatable (and I'm a recovering germophobe, so that's saying something). Bonus: less time to spend with family when solo travelers do arrive.

Work sucks. It just does. I never treat service employees in any field poorly, even when they treat me poorly, but I'm not going to boohoo for the flight attendants here. High schoolers flipping burgers have to put up with worse than Baldwin hourly (I remember), and they do it for pocket change. I'll never ask anyone to feel sorry for me because of known hazards of whatever job I have, and so I get to not feel sorry for them because of their known hazards. As a perk, the crew now has a great story to tell at parties and probably a memento of a napkin to put on ebay.

[Ed Hardy]

It would be interesting to see how this would look if it had happened to Joe Shmoe rather than Alec Baldwin. Then you would have the story of someone stuck on the tarmac for an hour getting snappy when a demand with no really good hard science behind it is made rather than simply requesting to be sure airplane mode is on. Having it be Baldwin just makes it too easy to say he's an ass and be done with the analysis.

If it was Joe Schmoe he probably would have been arrested and be facing a stiff fine (The max. punishment for causing a disturbance on a flight is 20 years in federal prison and a $250,000 fine.). Alec Baldwin, on the other hand, is going to walk off scott-free because he's a celebrity. He needs to get public censure because that's all the punishment he's going to get.

When comedians act like jerks in public, the correct response is some self-deprecating humor. Going on TV to mock the people you were rude to just makes you more of a jerk.
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[LandSurveyor]

As has been mentioned before, Baldwin has a long history of being a spoiled jerk, so no surprise. It's not like somebody strip searched him or told him he couldn't get up to go to the bathroom; it was a stupid game.

As I've never flown commercially, I have little with which to empathize, other than the horror stories I read in the news. I have, however, worked at an airport, and seen how people act in these situations. Even in the pre-TSA days, airport security personnel had to put up with people's crap just in the ordinary course of doing their jobs.

Simple good manners on everybody's part would have avoided this ugly situation.

[Varjak]

Hook, I think the difference is that Baldwin, as a long-time 'friend' of SNL, was obviously given the soapbox to expound from. Personally, I wasn't offended though. It was expected. I just think his 'take' was way off base, and not really funny.

BTW, plenty of Joe Schmoes have also been in similar trouble for not obeying the attendants.

Lelisa, I think because you've not flown in 16 years, you're a bit like Rip Van Winkle for air travel (not meant as an insult, just an analogy). First, 9/11 changed EVERYTHING, and it was made worse by the economy and airlines losing money. If you don't have boarding priority, you will almost NEVER get space for carry-on baggage. Which is why everyone complains. My solution for this is simple. I think EVERONE should be required to check bags and only carry on one item (not a bag; but something like a book, your purse, your laptop, iPad, etc.). Then REQUIRE the carriers to upgrade their baggage-handling capability. If checked baggage was well-handled, most people would be fine with checking bags if they got them back all the time and quickly. Plus, if absolutely necessary to the system, those with priority (frequent fliers, 1st class, business-class, fee-payers) could carry on ONE standard bag. The system now is backward IMO.

I think people ought to just turn off the stuff when asked. I know most people don't believe it harms the airplane (I don't either); so maybe the FAA/NTSB ought to do a study and publish the results. There as a very long string of comments on a similar article in the Times, and several people claiming to be pilots did say that the devices, even when in 'airplane mode,' interfered with communications in the cockpit. There were crackles, high-pitched noises, static, etc.