Wednesday, August 3, 2011

Turning off electronic devices...why is it so hard to do?

Today on descent into Montego Bay, one of my Flight Attendants asked a passenger to turn off his iPad while we were preparing the flight for landing.

He just hit the top button and put the iPad into 'Standby' mode, but not turning it completely off. She asked the gentleman a few more times to turn off the device, explained to him that the device was still in standby mode and not powered down.

She informed him that she herself has an iPad, and explained how to turn it off, yet he wanted to argue the fact that even in 'Airplane' mode and in standby mode, it wasn't emitting any wave lengths to disrupt our flight. Unfortunately for him, the FAA and FCC deem that simply turning a device into 'standby' mode is still considered 'on'. So we as Flight Attendants must enforce the Federal Air Regulations ensuring that the airplane is ready and prepared for landing. This includes ensuring all devices are powered completely off.

A few months ago while working on a night flight, during the safety demo, I witnessed a passenger texting on his iPhone. I informed him that the device needs to be off. He kept insisting that it was off, yet I would cath him still texting. So, I went to his phone, picked it up, and showed him how to turn it off, as required by the Regulations.

Is it really that hard to do without your precious phone and/or electronic for 5 minutes?