Opinions or advice, either are fine. I was on an Air Canada flight last night out of YEG, it was a Dash 8 and full all but 2 seats, all the usual pre flight briefs were done and mobile phone use etc were covered. However this
1 seat forward and diagonal to me persisted to send and recieve emails right the way through take off and landing. Yes i did challenge him but by then we were airborne. I told the stewardess who said, "what can i do, i told them twice" and just left it. My blood was boiling at the ignorance of the guy who cared not a jot for anybody, i could clearly see his phone and it was fully on and not in a FS mode.......what do you or can you actually do when crap likethat happens
First, a couple people have replied to you with FAA regulations in mind. While close, the Transport Canada Canadian Aviation Regulations (CAR) are in use here in Canada. There are three main regulations pertaining to this situation that the Flight Attendant would have been well aware of:
Compliance with Instructions
602.05 (1) Every passenger on board an aircraft shall comply with instructions given by any crew member respecting the safety of the aircraft or of persons on board the aircraft.
(2) Every crew member on board an aircraft shall, during flight time, comply with the instructions of the pilot-in-command or of any person whom the pilot-in-command has authorized to act on behalf of the pilot-in-command.
and
Portable Electronic Devices
602.08 (1) No operator of an aircraft shall permit the use of a portable electronic device on board an aircraft, where the device may impair the functioning of the aircraft's systems or equipment.
(2) No person shall use a portable electronic device on board an aircraft except with the permission of the operator of the aircraft.
Additionally, from
CAR 705.40:
(4) For the purposes of
Section 602.08, no air operator shall permit the use of a portable electronic device on board an aircraft unless the air operator has established procedures that
(a) meet the
Commercial Air Service Standards; and
(b) are specified in the air operator's company operations manual.
Now, I cannot speak directly to the Air Canada Company Operations Manual, however, not many Canadian airlines have gone through to identify which cell phones do not interfere with the aircraft functions. There are, of course, pace makers, hearing aids, et cetera, which do not interefere, and they state that in their briefing. At my airline, we blanket all cell phones just in case.
Do they do anything? I'll leave the scholarly research to others, but I know if I forget to turn my cell phone off, I can hear it trying to connect to the network through my headset - a distracting sound that has me looking through the cockpit to try and turn the damned thing off! I fly Dash 8 aircraft, similar to the one you would have been on. I also remember hearing of an Air New Zealand 767 that was given false glideslope information into Fiji or Rarotonga once, until they found a passenger with a cell phone turned on; they turned it off, and like magic, no more false glideslope.
So, to answer your question, what could this Flight Attendant have done?
Well, if he or she wanted, they could have notified the PIC through the "Interference with Crew Members" program that all CAR 705 airlines have had to adopt. A passenger failing to heed the instructions of a crew member twice would be a level two incident which, depending on Air Canada procedures, may require notification to the company (mine does). Now, all air operators are required to report incidents to Transport Canada on a bi-annual basis, and on the occurence of all level three and four incidents. It is possible, however, that Transport would take enforcement action on a level two incident just to prove a point. What is the enforcement for failing to heed crew member instructions with a portable electronic device, you may ask? Well, CAD$3,000 for using the device, and another CAD$3,000 for failing to listen to a crew member - plus some potential jail time if you've done this before (CAR 103, Schedule II). Not to mention, if you're still at the gate, they could throw you off the flight.
So, for the travelling public, yes - there is something your crew can do. For updating your
Facebook status to say "Im on a plane!" you may be removed from the aircraft, obtain a $6,000 fine, or face some jail time! Not to mention, evil looks from other passengers!
