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Lies, all lies, at 35,000 feet
Sunday, August 22, 2010

I've always been skeptical about airlines' claim that ANY electronic device is dangerous in flight because it can mess with the plane's navigation system. Do you know how I know this? Because my wife and I rarely turn off our cell phones. Shhhh, don't tell on us. We just don't bother. Or we forget. And the road warriors riding up front in the big seats? Ha! You know their phones are on as well.

Now, I don't know about you, but I can't recall an epidemic of planes dropping from the skies due to cell phones not being turned off. Hmmm. Maybe it happened when I was on vacation in Italy? Anyone? Did I miss this?

Now they're making us turn off our kindles (and other e-readers) until we reach 10,000 feet. So you know what I do? I take that nice copy of the free inflight magazine, open it, set my kindle right in the middle and pretend that I'm reading the magazine ... the same way I hid comic books in my textbooks in grammar school.

NOTE TO AIRLINE EXECUTIVES: Methinks you are lying. Remember when you said our phones had to be off AT ALL TIMES while we were on board? And then renegade Jetblue started flying and told passengers they were free to use their phones the second the plane's wheels hit the tarmac? And then you all had to follow suit, right?

Oh ... and now that you have wi-fi on board that you will charge us for ... suddenly, it's okay to have those browsers up and running while the plane is flying?

Off soapbox.

3 Comments:

Val said...: A flight attendant recently whispered to me that cell phones don't interfere with anything on a plane. She said the most likely problem is that your phone battery will die roaming for a signal! So read on!!; August 22, 2010 12:00 PM
Anonymous said...: I flew on a military plane to Indiana for the day last year. People were texting from the aircraft and so I did as well. They did not ask me to stop.; August 22, 2010 12:31 PM
Darla said...: I'm not worried about MY cellphone or e-reader taking the plane down! I'm worried about the guy who is supposed to be flying the big bucket of bolts getting that "it's not you it's me" text!
I love that you read your kindle in the magazine though! You renegade!; August 22, 2010 8:24 PM