emirates

Congress acting fast to ban in-flight phone calls — yours, not theirs

Paul Boutin · 08/01/08 03:20PM

H.R. 5788, The Halting Airplane Noise to Give Us Peace Act of 2008 (aka HANG UP), was approved by the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee on Thursday. USA Today recounts the anecdotes traded in yesterday's meeting: The woman whose seatmate discussed her sex life. The flight nearly canceled because of a guy begging and pleading with his soon-to-be ex. And of course, the guy taking photos of "sensitive parts" of the airplane. By contrast, the European Union is moving ahead on inflight cellular service (and the bureaucratic EU licensing nightmare to go with it.) Emirates has allowed calls on some flights since March, enabled by a specially equipped Airbus A340. (Photo by AP/Fernando Vergara — and yes that's former president of Ecuador Lucio Gutierrez)