FCC Chairman Aims To Keep Cellphone Calls Banned On Flights
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- Since 2013, the Federal Communications Commission has been considering allowing airline passengers to make phone calls in mid-flight. Now, it appears that plan has been quashed.
Calling the proposal 'ill-conceived,' FCC chairman Ajit Pai says he wants to take it off the table for good. It would be a 'victory,' in his words, for those who 'value a moment of quiet at 30,000 feet.'
Pai's predecessor allowed the plan to proceed four years ago. Then-chairman Tom Wheeler said while he's the last person who wanted to listen to someone yapping on a cell phone during a flight, the FCC is not the Federal 'Courtesy' Commission, and there was no longer a technical justification for the rule.
Pai noted getting deluged with emails opposed to the idea; he cited one person who said he feared what he might do with his 'cutlery' if fellow passengers were on their phones.
The commissioners now must vote on whether to kill the proposal permanently.
