Should They Allow Phone Calls on Planes?

By Christopher Elliott

Is it time to allow phone calls on planes?

European regulators think so. This summer, the EU quietly cleared in-flight cell phones for takeoff, saying that allowing cell phones on planes would allow for more technological innovation. The EU designated certain frequencies for in-flight 5G technology, which would allow airlines to create an in-flight network capable of handling phone calls.

“The sky is no longer the limit when it comes to possibilities offered by super-fast, high-capacity connectivity,” noted Thierry Breton, the EU’s commissioner for the internal market.

But most American air travelers still strongly oppose the use of cell phones on a flight, arguing that they don’t want to be in a confined space with someone making a call. A minority of passengers say having a conversation is harmless and that the ban is preventing them from getting important work done on the plane.

I’ll tell you who’s right in just a minute.

Totally Against

“I am totally against phone calls on planes,” says Stephanie Wolkin, a retired educational worker from White Bear Lake, Minn.

She says people talk too much on planes already, and they are “loud and obnoxious.”

“Can you imagine the cacophony?” she asks.

Allowing phones might also be unsafe, passengers worry.

“If the phone call policy was liberalized, I think it might make it difficult to hear important safety announcements,” says Susan Sherren, founder of Couture Trips, a travel agency. “Planes are confined spaces, and airlines should protect those spaces and keep them free from phone calls.”

Some etiquette experts agree that phones should not be permitted on planes.

“Oh, for the love of Pete!” says Jodi RR Smith, an etiquette consultant. “Please do not encourage passengers to make calls on planes.”

“Morrissey” from page 17

Cabrillo College has an excellent reputation among the community at large (a reputation I wholeheartedly agree with), however, it has a horrible reputation among young individuals, especially high school seniors.

Air travel is is stressful enough, she adds. “To have people engaged in extended conversations onboard would be torturous.”

So, to sum up the arguments against making voice calls on planes, it’s potentially unsafe and definitely annoying. Mostly annoying. So it shouldn’t be allowed. Some in Favor

For other passengers, and especially business travelers, the cell phone ban is silly. You can already make internet calls as long as you’re connected to the in-flight Wi-Fi network. Why not make it official?

“We put up with babies crying, nonstop conversation of passengers, and annoying seatmates who have to get up and go to the restroom constantly,” says Andy Abramson, a frequent traveler and a communications consultant from Las Vegas. “So I ask, ‘What’s the big deal?’”

He says many business travelers routinely ignore ban on in-flight calls. They simply log on to the plane’s Wi-Fi network and start talking.

“My phone has rung many times on a plane,” says Barry Graham, a sales manager based in Washington, D.C. “Which is really annoying when I know that I could be arrested for answering it.”

Graham says the in-flight ban doesn’t make sense to him because it prevents him from participating in all calls, including web conferences where he doesn’t even need to speak.

Practically speaking, the law against phone calls is almost never enforced. I couldn’t find any record of a passenger being arrested for making an illegal phone call. But you should mind what you say when you’re allowed to make a call. A few weeks ago in India, a man was arrested after discussing plans to hijack the plane before takeoff.

The pro-call passengers wonder how making phone calls became such a controversial topic. After all, you could make a call from a plane until 2013, when the last Airfones were decommissioned. What happened in the decade between?

This horrible reputation isn’t based on student nightmares about the name, it is based on the idea that Cabrillo College does not provide a meaningful opportunity for their higher education.

This name change affirms this reputation — that Cabrillo College and an obsessive community would rather focus

The likeliest answer: Airlines kept taking things away from passengers, including legroom, the ability to carry a bag on the plane, seat assignments. The one thing they haven’t removed yet is the peace and quiet at cruising altitude.

Bottom line: The pro-phone folks believe calls are safe and that banning them stands in the way of personal freedom and progress.

Who is Right?

The anti-call passengers make a valid point about unwanted noise. The cabin of an airliner can be chaotic and loud, so why add to the confusion?

But their main argument that it somehow makes a flight less safe doesn’t really fly. Swarun Kumar, professor of electrical and computer engineering at Carnegie Mellon University, says aviation safety experts are no longer concerned that wireless calls could interfere with cockpit equipment.

“In fact, using data when airborne is technically not a violation, and of course, plenty of travelers use in-flight Wi-Fi,” he adds.

I’m not aware of any evidence that in the Airfone days, the handsets distracted passengers from the in-flight safety announcements or somehow made flying less safe, either.

So maybe the time is right to consider allowing phone calls on domestic airlines, which EU regulators have already recognized. You can’t turn the cabin into a no-call zone in 2023. People need to communicate. But there’s a right way to do it.

Responsible Phone Calls

There are two key issues when it comes to in-flight phone calls. The first is, who gets to make a call, and when?

Airlines would have to communicate their policies clearly in advance. They would need to address issues like when calls are not allowed, such as during in-flight safety their efforts on their own personal agenda than for the well-being of their students. I shouldn’t have to bike from work on a Monday evening to represent my fellow students and community, I shouldn’t have to bear a shield against fanatics, and I fear that my personal reputation will be tarred and feathered by fanatics. announcements or during takeoff and landing. And they would need to enforce those rules, probably by disabling the network during those times.

More importantly, airline crew would need to brief passengers on proper phone manners, since this is a topic passengers have not been taught in school. It’s not OK to have a loud conversation in the middle of the night when your seatmate is trying to sleep, for example.

Issue number two: Where do we put the talkers? Nick Leighton, an etiquette expert, says airlines consider creating a quiet cabin where phone calls aren’t allowed, like Acela’s Quiet Car. I’m sure there’s an airline revenue manager or two out there imagining the extra fees that selling seats in a quiet cabin could generate.

“There are so many compelling and legitimate reasons to be reachable by phone at 35,000 feet that coming up with some sort of etiquette-approved solution is worthwhile,” he says.

We’re still a long way from being able to make legal phone calls from a plane in the United States. But it is time to start thinking about how we’ll handle voice calls when they become a reality.

It’s not a question of if it will happen, but when. n

•••

Christopher Elliott is the founder of Elliott Advocacy, a nonprofit organization that helps consumers solve their problems. Email him at chris@elliott.org.

Yet in the end, somebody must stand and tell the trustees and their fervent bodyguards, that we next generation have little confidence in their ability to do their job in helping students achieve a higher education. This embarrassing crusade is merely proof to the community at large that this institution does not represent the broader interests of the student. n

“Aptos History” from page 21

Then we met Carolyn Swift, another amazing historian, born in Santa Cruz County and a former writer for the RegisterPajaronian and other publications. Carolyn was also the curator of the Capitola Museum. She shared, and continues to share, an amazing collection of photographs and stories about Aptos.

She has also helped correct some of the tall tales that showed up in some older newspaper articles. Some of those stories were embellished to make them more interesting, like gossip. That is why original research is the best way to pass on history stories.

I was invited to join the board of the Santa Cruz County Historical Trust from 1991 to 1994. During that time, I was able to collect lots of information and photographs from the Museum of Art and History. It was a great resource for our museum.

It was rumored that the old guest register from the Bay View hotel belonged to someone in the community and that Hawaiian King Kalakaua had stayed there. King David Kalakaua did come to Aptos to see Claus Spreckels, the sugar millionaire, but he did not stay at the Bay View Hotel. It turned out that the guest register in question was actually from Claus Spreckels’ famous Aptos Hotel (on Spreckels Drive), and that Karl Mertz of the Mangels family owned the register. After many years, Karl gifted that register to our museum collection along with many more incredible artifacts.

Next, we met Allen Collins who had meticulously researched and written the history of Rio Del Mar, initially in installments for the Rio Del Mar Improvement Association newsletter and later, in book form. This is our most accurate record of our history, and his book is available at the Aptos History Museum. Allen invited relatives of the Arano and Castro families to meet each other at the Bay View Hotel in 1994 which resulted in donations of the first photographs of Rafael and Soledad Castro and Joseph and Augustia Arano, the first Spanish/Mexican families of Aptos. When Allen passed away, he left all his research material to the museum.

Our growing collection was displayed at the Chamber of Commerce office in Redwood Village until 1994. When we moved the Aptos Chamber to its current location on Old Dominion Court, across from the Seacliff Inn, the collection continued to expand and was displayed within the new Chamber office, but most of the collection remained in storage. We began to host third grade school field trips on local history and soon we were too popular for the size of our office.

In 2005, additional office space in the building became available, and Karen decided that the Aptos History Museum deserved to have its own larger facility and become a real museum. We appealed to the community, and an advisory committee was formed.

The new space was repainted and made ready. Linda Yamane, a Native American Ohlone descendent taught us how to make a tule boat for the museum. Nels Westman suspended it from the museum ceiling and installed the museum lighting system. Dick Garwood created new display cases and his wife Heidi created our graphic materials. Our now sizable collection was retrieved from storage and dusted off, and a crew of volunteers worked for many months to set up and organize the new museum.

The Aptos History Museum opened its expanded facility on May 24, 2006, and it has since garnered enthusiastic reviews and numerous citations of merit. Annually, it has hosted the Aptos public schools’ third grade classes for their “local history” field trips and education for residents, visitors, Realtors, and researchers.

The Museum Advisory Committee plans history events, walks and tours to help us get the stories out to the membership and the public. Bob Wall takes seniors from Aegis and Dominican Oaks on bus tours to historic locations. The committee wanted to produce a pictorial history book, so Kevin Newhouse volunteered. The book is part of Arcadia Publishing’s Images of America series, simply titled “Aptos.” Copies are available at the Museum.

The museum has been created for, and by the community. Aptos is not an incorporated city, so the Aptos History Museum does not receive any funding by local governments. The Aptos History Museum has no paid staff. We are all volunteers.

The new Aptos Library is under construction and is currently expected to open in October. During the design phase, our County Supervisor Zach Friend, asked that the History Museum be included as an integral part of the new library. This has resulted in a large display case in the main hallway of the library where the museum’s talented group of volunteers will be creating rotating displays of the museum’s collection to tell fascinating stories about the history of where we live. We have also lent the library our Ohlone tule canoe, a reproduction of John Montgomery’s glider wing, and an entry sign from the Rio Del Mar entrance gate.

Meanwhile, we have two months to find a new location and move all of our exhibits to a new space.

Most museums in the county that are not funded by cities or taxes have acquired their own buildings, and that is the direction we hope to take for our future. The Aptos History Museum is in the process of becoming a nonprofit educational organization separate from the Aptos Chamber, which will make us eligible for grant funding and will also benefit our donors. We are hoping to raise enough to acquire our own building for our future.

Eventually, we would love to be in Aptos Village or the original village which is Aptos Village Square. The two oldest commercial buildings are in Aptos Village Square. The Arano general store and post office, built in 1867 by Joseph Arano who later built the Bay View Hotel, and the David Rice house/hotel, built in 1874. Both buildings were built on Aptos Wharf Road, which connected to Rafael Castro’s wharf. After the railroad arrived in 1876, the town of Aptos moved across Aptos Creek to the east so that it would become the center of the lumber industry up Aptos and Valencia Creeks.

The Arano General Store and the Rice House are being acquired by the Santa Cruz County Regional Transportation Commission so that the recreational trail alongside the rail line, can be constructed on a portion of the rear of these properties. The Rice house was in the middle of a remodel when it was purchased. That building is a possible future home for the museum.

In the meantime, we need a home in a hurry.

Please help! Call (831) 688-1467 or see aptoshistory.org for information. If you are not a member, please join. n