wessex19

source; AAP

"A 54-year-old man who allegedly refused to turn his mobile phone off during a flight out of Sydney has been charged with endangering an aircraft.

Police say the man boarded a Jetstar flight from Sydney to Queensland's Hervey Bay early on Wednesday, and then argued with the cabin crew when he refused to switch off his mobile.

"He allegedly refused to stop using his mobile phone," a Queensland Police spokesman said in a statement.

"It's alleged that around 8.30am (AEST) the man became abusive towards a flight attendant after his mobile phone was confiscated."

At Hervey Bay airport police were waiting for the man. He was arrested after he disembarked from the plane and taken into custody.

The man has been charged with an offence against Section 22 of the Crimes Aviation Act, for endangering the safety of an aircraft.

He is expected to appear in the Hervey Bay Magistrates Court on September 25."

Skystar320

throw the book at him!

WynSock

Not the sharpest tool in the shed.

lowerlobe

Surely the point here is that a person wilfully disobeyed a directive given by a crew member.

Whether or not the phone is a direct threat, the issue here is non compliance from a pax to a company directive which was carried out by a crew member.If someone get's away with this then what will some other pax do if they feel so inclined to thumb their nose at authority and a safety directive.

How many pax really understand the environment that aircraft operate in and possible dangers involved.....not many.If you can't live with out a mobile phone for an hour or two then that is your problem not the crew and other pax.

If they do not want to comply with safety or other directives then they can drive to their destination.

VH-UFO

lowerlobe i agree with you.

However i would like to know as James Michael would, has there been a study, or has there been proof of mobile phone interference with navigational equipment in aircraft?

By George

I work for an Asian Airline and on landing you can hear the phones ringing away. The only effect seems to be an increase in my blood pressure. The Cabin crew seem unable to stop them.

compressor stall

The issue is not "has there been a study that shows mobile phone interfere with an aircraft...?"

Your question should be, "Has there been a study that shows mobile phones do NOT interfere with an aircraft's ... equipment?"

There is ample evidence that there has been some interference at various times. A cursory search of these fora will reveal that.

I believe that there have been trials overseas with mobiles in flight - using retransmitting equipment on the aircraft. Trying to explain this concept to the average JQ passenger would not be easy.

And yes, the other issue is willful disregard for the authority of the crew.

boardpig

I think the merits of a study on the effect of phone use on systems, is the topic of another discussion.
In this case, the pax is a complete tosser. The very fact that we don't "know" there are no effects from mobile use, should be enough of a reason to leave the thing off. I'm always amazed at how these "city slicker know it all" type pax seem to have a healthy disregard for just about anything that makes common sense.

I agree, here is the book, throw at will...

Dog Tucker

Failing to comply with a cabin crew directive = a chat with the police.

WannaBeBiggles

Hope this idiot gets made an example of!

Here is a spreadsheet flog provided in another thread about mobile phones.

Mark_Tuck

yep here's a book from me for you to throw also..

i agree with all re: your comments about what exactly the man is charged with

too long have the pax been getting too cheeky regarding how
a) late they can turn their phones off before departure and
b) how soon they can turn their phones on before arrival OH and
c) TOTAL disregard of the seatbelt signs

Too many of these punters on their $89 tickets think they are important business travellers and can do what they like - hopefully this might be a warning to them that hey, you need to listen to the aircraft crew and conduct yourself in the proper manner when onboard an aircraft no matter who you are..

We've all left our phones on inadvertantly (or otherwise), and we're here to tell the story, but hopefully a few more people read about this in the newspaper and realise that the RULES ARE RULES !! The crew are just doing their job !!

A BIG thumbs up to the crew for not letting this one slide, hopefully in this case there is some form of successful punishment

Brian Abraham

Want to play Russian Roulette? Your life is not endangered unless the chamber with the bullet is under the hammer. Throw the book at the b*gger. One of our aircraft had a baggage fire warning (no fire fighting capability) triggered by a phone, fortunately on the ground.

Ixixly

I remember that some time ago there was a link that basically showed different airlines in-flight problems and the causes that were related to these problems. A lot of them were directly contributed to mobile phone use and laptop use. Once said Mobile Phone or Laptop was turned off or removed the glitches and/or problems disappeared with them.

So there is good cause to be concerned about it. I'll try and dig up the old post with the link for everyone!!

notmyC150v2

The question this half wit will have to answer in the Court is whether or not he breached the law. My limited understanding leads me to believe that the law is that failing to comply with a direction of cabin crew deems you to have endangered the safety of an aircraft.

If the evidence says that he refused to comply with the directions of Cabin Crew then I guess he's off to porridge. Good on 'em too.

Here's a song for him to consider in the meantime:

When you're in prison, don't turn the other way
Keep your back against the wall
When you're in prison, don't turn the other way
Do not bend at all

Oh don't pick up the soap, pick up the soap
It's bad for you

Oh don't pick up the soap, pick up the soap
Someone will be waiting there for you

When you're in prison be sure to stay awake
Always lie upon your back

When you're in prison be sure to stay awake
Keep you from attack

Oh don't be no one's bitch, be no one's bitch
It's bad for you

Oh don't be no one's bitch, be no one's bitch
They won't help you make it through.

When you're in prison, don't turn the other way
Follow what I say to do.

When you're in prison, don't turn the other way
You can make it through
You can make it through
You can make it through


Gotta love The Offspring

Ixixly

Well, did a quick search around, couldn't find quite the post i wanted BUT i did find this study on the use of Mobile Phones which certainly does show that mobile phones can affect the eletrical equipment on an aircraft.

http://www.caa.co.uk/docs/33/CAPAP2003_03.PDF

Oh and some good discussion found on Airliners.net as well inregards with plenty of links, testimonials etc...

Cell Phones On The Plane, Are They A Danger? — Aviation Polls Forum | Airliners.net

Capt Kremin

Not to be too picky but cabin crew aren't actually legally empowered to issue any directives to passengers. If they are passing on a directive from the PIC, fine.

Going Boeing

In the air, mobile phones will automatically go to their highest transmission power setting in order to find a ground station to log on to. This level of power is sufficient to affect aircraft systems especially if any shielding of wires has deteriated during the years of aircraft service. The system to allow mobile phone use onboard, that has been trialled on a QF B767, commands all the mobile phones onboard to their lowest power setting which has been determined to be low enough as to not affect any aircraft systems.

speedbirdhouse

Capt Kremin,

conditions of carriage state clearly that it is an offense under law to ignore the directives of a cabin crew member.

FRQ Charlie Bravo

Technology isn't always the answer but I used to imagine a system which when activated, such as in a cinema before the movie starts or on an aeroplane, would cause a phone to respond with a beep if it was turned on and not made silent. It possibly wouldn't stop someone who wanted to fly around in silent mode but it'd make the honest ones aware that they'd forgotten to turn off their phones.

It'd take some collaboration on the part of phone manufacturers but surely bluetooth phones would just need a software upgrade.

Just a half-baked idea,

~FRQ CB

Sunstar320

I witnessed a bad situation in July on a JQ flight to Sydney from the Gold Coast. The passenger was sitting there, yelling away in his language to the other person and he was told countless times to shut it off, but he just shook her off. He wasn't listening to her, till she bought about 3 other FA and they had a go at him....

Some people obvously dont care about OTP and the other 179 pax around him...there are other people around you also mate!!!!!!!!!!!!!!