No CNN For Jet Blue Passengers?
A Jet Blue passenger with a Blackberry e-mailed CNN to tell them that the airline turned off the onboard TV, so the passengers could NOT watch the crisis live on TV. UPDATE: It turns out that passengers DID get to watch their own crisis on TV while the airplane was circling, but not during landing (as turning off passenger electronics is a normal part of the landing procedure).
6:26 PM * PERMALINK * 13 comments
Comments:
It's standard practice to shut off televisions, laptops, cell phones, and other devices during take off and landing. It has nothing to do with the crisis and everything to do with how they normally land their planes.
But that would be like so, meta.
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I find it ironic that someone in the middle of an inflight crisis would use a wireless device that can potentially cause trouble with communications between the plane and the ground..
I fly JetBlue exclusively between New York and Los Angeles and New York and Denver. I travel to those locations, roundtrip, about five or six times a year.
In my experience with JetBlue, in the last five years, during take off the televisions have been off about 50% of the time. During landings the televisions have been off maybe 30% of the time. When they have been on, the reception is intermittent and a disclaimer stating the loss of satelite signal is due to the "normal movement of the aircraft", but the televisions are NOT off.
morpeth, I don't think they meant that the guy would Blackberry cnn AS this was happening. Who would even bother? And how would he even know what the news was saying/showing if the screens were off? I'm non-cynically sure that he sent off the message after he had safely deplaned and, after talking to whoever met him or watching some news himself, was made aware of what CNN was saying about the screens.
Just noticing that I share the same screenname as the guy who runs this blog. That isn't me, and I'm not him. I'm just a random dude, visiting.
I'm of mixed opinions about this... on the one hand, I sympathize with the pilot - news anchors droning on and on about how bad this could possibly be and interviewing experts that tell them that it's certain to be worse does not seem conducive toward a mild-mannered passenger cabin. On the other hand, I'm a firm believer in open information, and as such would be livid if I were a passenger in said cabin.
This is absurd. Passengers have no RIGHT to expect that the TV remain on during a crisis. Jet Blue as a company decided to have in-flight TV as part of it's offering to the public. Jet Blue also has the right to turn them off when they feel it necessary. If you want unlimited access to information on your flight, start your own airline.
According to accounts elsewhere, including major news outlets and CNN itself, this is not true. The TV stayed ON through the entire thing.
http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/09/22/airliner.emergency.ap/index.html
According to Yahoo! News the passengers were in fact able to watch the news:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050922/ap_on_re_us/airliner_emergency;_ylt=Ag70Ks6gmxv5vETxEyIFCP.s0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTA3ODdxdHBhBHNlYwM5NjQ-
Just what you need in a crisis! Backseat drivers!
Maybe the media should look at the "bigger picture" in this ridiculous and nonending commentary.
As a Flight Attendant, in a situation where my commands need to be clearly heard in order to evacuate an aircraft, I am turning OFF the television when it comes time to command an evacuation of the aircraft. It has absolutely nothing to do with denying anyone the right to information, only to help ensure that their attention is focused on what actions need to be accomplished in order to safeguard their lives.
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