We’re slowly starting to see more stories of airline crews getting fed up and kicking people off flights for using their mobile phones, but none are as controversial as this.
A Texas businessman named Joe Jones was recently arrested following a Southwest Airlines flight on which he refused to get off of his phone prior to landing. Flight attendants had repeatedly asked the man to stop the conversation and turn off his mobile, receiving a “kiss my ass” in return each time they asked. Frustrated, they had state police meet him at the gate, where he continued to make a ruckus.
As his spokesman later explained, however, Jones had just received word that his father’s heart had stopped beating and was wildly trying to contact the hospital. Given the life and death situation, he felt it necessary to make the phone calls.
And I can empathize with that situation — if I knew that my parents were gravely ill and had to call the hospital, I can totally see how I would be trying to call the doctor in panic. My questions are as follows: how did Jones get the message in the first place? Was he on the plane with his phone on when a text came in or did he get the call before he boarded? And isn’t interfering with an aircraft landing with your mobile phone signal also a life and death situation?