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Having read the article, I still don't understand. How is a phone getting stuck a problem?
by laserlight 3y ago
Having read the article, I still don't understand. How is a phone getting stuck a problem?
- mozman 3y agoThe mechanical linkage of the seat can crush the phone and cause the battery to ignite. It would be helpful if the announcements eluded to this, as a pax I’m not going to want to bother anyone especially if i think it’s just another dumb pointless rule.
- mlyle 3y agoIt's a wacky thing, in that --- on the one side, you want to convince passengers the rule is serious... But you also don't really want to mention fire as you're beginning a flight.
- throwbadubadu 3y agoThe tickets are bought already, and you mention also the cabin pressure loss, what to do in case of an emergency landing and watering.. most airlines here also pretty explicit about battery devices going smokey, and noone freaks out, so that is really not the concern?
- CaptainZapp 3y agoWell, anything remotely refering to flight problems is cut out of inflight movies. Even Qantas cut the scene in Rainman where Raymond histerically doesn't want to board an airplane since Qantas is the only carrier that never had a fatality.
- mlyle 3y ago> The tickets are bought already, The concern isn't really revenue loss. > and noone freaks out, Plenty of people freak out and create safety issues and distractions. Anything you say during the safety briefing, you're making a tradeoff between slightly preparing sane, attentive passengers better and increasing the worry of anxious passengers.
- dotancohen 3y ago> especially if i think it’s just another dumb pointless rule FAA rules are written in blood. They may be overbearing and often tedious, but they are far from dumb and pointless. Those rules are from other government agencies.
- alvah 3y agoIs the "all devices must be put in flight mode" rule written in blood? Everything I've heard suggests it's not necessary. I agree with your general point though.
- rich_sasha 3y agoI think it is written with blood from a scratch. I spoke to a pilot about it a while back, he said in the early days (either because of less EM shielding or different phone design or something else - not sure) this really interfered with e.g. the landing radio aids. While it never caused a crash, it was mighty annoying and distracting, and in the wrong circumstances could have lead to a crash. AFAIK it never did, but could have done.
- NobodyNada 3y agoNote that the rule about mobile devices is an FCC rule, not an FAA rule.
- tomjakubowski 3y agoIt is both an FAA rule and an FCC rule https://www.faa.gov/travelers/fly_safe/information https://www.faa.gov/travelers/fly_safe/information
- ShadowBanThis01 3y agoHe's not saying the rule is pointless. He's pointing out that the announcements FAIL to explain that this is an important safety issue, leading passengers to BELIEVE that it's no big deal.
- 3y ago
- cperciva 3y agoAir Canada announcements specifically say "inform a member of our crew immediately as it may pose a fire hazard". I guess it varies from airline to airline.
- nrb 3y agoAnecdotally, United has been including a warning about the the phone’s battery becoming damaged in their pre-takeoff briefing for a while now.
- stevenwoo 3y agoI imagine one can use the movable bits of a seat as a lever and break a phone in two accidentally leading to an open lithium battery.
- dotancohen 3y agoHow plausible is it that somebody would crush a phone deliberately, considering that it involves only items already allowed on board? Or a team of people doing this throughout the aircraft?
- cperciva 3y agoEasy if you know what you're doing. Obligatory xkcd: https://xkcd.com/651/ https://xkcd.com/651/
- stevenwoo 3y agoA good point. Maybe it just shows a.) how much of what we are required to do is security theater b.) that it does not reliably work in making an uncontrollable fire so that is why it is not used as instrument of terror. I've accidentally opened a couple of batteries while repairing phones and they did not burst into flames, though I remember furiously googling and putting them in a bucket of water outside after a minute or two.
- thiscatis 3y agoLess of an issue in economy seats seats but in new business class seats or suites there’s the possibility for a lot of crushing and grinding of the battery of the phone with the mechanical moving components of the seat. I had it happen to me once but as instructed didn’t move the seat (had to move to another one for landing as it was stuck in the lie flat position). After landing the maintenance crew had to completely dismantle the back of the seat but they found the phone. The pilots and crew were obviously a bit annoyed as they couldn’t disembark the aircraft with me still on board. But much better result than having to declare PAN PAN.
- khuey 3y ago> I had it happen to me once but as instructed didn’t move the seat (had to move to another one for landing as it was stuck in the lie flat position). How does that work on a completely full flight?
- cperciva 3y agoTwo ways -- first, as already a couple other people mentioned, the battery could get crushed in a hinge; and second, a phone which is turned on and wedged between two cushions might overheat. This second danger is why modern phones are required to detect overheating and preemptively shut down -- but it's going to be decades before the FAA will want to assume that everyone has phones with that safety mechanism built in.
- stephen_g 3y agoSpecifically I think the issue is that if people drop the phone while reclined and then return the seat to the upright position to sit up to be able to reach down more easily, if the phone is in the wrong place it can get bent enough in the mechanism to compromise the battery pouch inside (which hopefully only makes it heat up and smoke but it can potentially catch fire, and fire is one of the the worst things to have in the cabin). This isn’t hypothetical, they put this in the safety talk since it has happened and obviously by reports like this, continues to happen!
- ShadowBanThis01 3y agoAnd you've just proven that the announcements are basically useless, because nobody is given a reason to take them seriously.