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Frequent Flier: A Cackling Toy Monkey in the Next Seat

August 5, 2013 by NewsMaker

I really do enjoy business travel. I work in the cleaning business for Zep Inc. as a marketing manager. I sometimes travel with sales representatives. Our sales reps are like consultants and can walk into a factory or hospital or really any place of business and they can tell management exactly what they need to do to disinfect. It always amazes me. Our business is all about relationships, so travel and those face-to-face meetings are just part of the job.

I’m one of those business travelers who will talk to anyone, but even my patience was tested on one flight by a grandmother and her over-caffeinated grandchild. Understand that I like children and grandmothers, but this little boy had a battery-powered monkey that made musical sounds and clapped its hands together. It sounds cute, but it wasn’t. This thing also had this crazy laugh, straight out of a horror movie like “Chucky.” I told the grandmother that the monkey would have to be switched off for takeoff. She said she didn’t know how. When a flight attendant came by to check on us, I was sure she’d turn off the monkey, but, of course, the thing went silent and I didn’t say anything.

While we were in flight, the monkey started to cackle again. I think it was controlled by a sensor. It was making the passengers who were seated near it really irritated. I was right next to it and I wanted to crawl out of the plane.

When the grandmother fell asleep I seized the moment and told the young man his monkey needed a nap and I took out the batteries. Mercifully, the young man accepted my explanation and he took a nap, too. The passengers around me were very grateful, but I swear that monkey was possessed since it stared at me the rest of the flight.

I’m not a nervous flier. I love watching aerobatics and always wondered what it would be like to be in one of those aircraft as they made those death-defying maneuvers. My wish came true on a flight to Chicago a few years ago.

We were supposed to be flying into Midway International and the pilot’s approach was long and slow. As we were coming in for the landing, not more than 1,000 feet off the ground, the pilot made a sharp turn to the right. The turn was so tight that he seemed to bank at a 90-degree angle. I had the window seat and was looking straight down at the ground. I could hear alarm bells going off in the cockpit. Just as I was convinced we were going to flip over on our back like a turtle, and any turtle can tell you that is not a good thing, the plane went into another 90-degree turn. But this time, it was to the left. I looked out the window again and I saw stars.

It seemed the pilot confused Chicago O’Hare with Chicago Midway and was landing at the wrong airport. At the last minute either he or the control tower realized the problem and he tried to correct his mistake. When we finally did land at Midway, the pilot bolted off the plane. I have never seen anyone move that fast. I haven’t flown on that particular airline since.

By Greg Hill, as told to Joan Raymond; E-mail: joan.raymond@nytimes.com.

Article source: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/06/business/a-cackling-toy-monkey-in-the-next-seat.html?partner=rss&emc=rss

Bits Blog: F.A.A. Approves iPads in Cockpits, But Not for Passengers

American AirlinesAmerican Airlines proudly showed how pilots would use iPads instead of paper charts.

The Federal Aviation Administration said Tuesday that pilots on American Airlines flights would be allowed to use iPads instead of paper flight manuals in the cockpit starting Friday, even during takeoff and landing. But, passengers are still required to shut down anything with the slightest electronic pulse from the moment a plane leaves the gate until it reaches an altitude of 10,000 feet.

The rule barring passengers from using a Kindle, an iPad, or even a calculator, were originally made to protect the electronics of an aircraft from interference. Yet pilots with iPads will be enclosed in the cockpit just a few inches from critical avionics on a plane.

There is some thought that the rule disallowing devices during takeoff and landing was made to insure passengers paid attention. The F.A.A. has never claimed this. (If this was the case, passengers would not be allowed to have books, magazines or newspapers during takeoff and landing.)

The F.A.A.’s stance regarding devices on planes has been revised several times. Last month, in my weekly Disruptions column, I noted that the rules requiring passengers to shut down devices, like Kindles and iPads, seem outdated. At the time I spoke with Les Dorr, a spokesman for the F.A.A., who said the reason for the ban was that the agency would rather err on the side of caution when it came to allowing digital devices on planes.

Yet in a statement issued to The New York Times, the F.A.A. said that it conducted ”rigorous testing of any electronic device proposed for use in the cockpit as an electronic flight bag, in lieu of paper navigation charts and manuals.”

The F.A.A. did not say why the testing that has been used for pilots could not also be used to test the seating area where passengers sit, so they could use iPads and Kindles, too.

The F.A.A. did say it had limited the number of approved devices in the cockpit to two, one for each pilot. “This involves a significantly different scenario for potential interference than unlimited passenger use, which could involve dozens or even hundreds of devices at the same time,” the F.A.A. said in the statement.

American Airlines did not respond to a request for comment. Last week the airline caused a kerfuffle when it ejected Alec Baldwin, a co-star on the NBC show 30 Rock”, from a flight for playing a game of Words with Friends on his iPhone while the plane was parked at the gate.

Article source: http://feeds.nytimes.com/click.phdo?i=9883e46e952173be4aab9efa43537e52

Frequent Flier: A Cackling Toy Monkey in the Next Seat

Bits Blog: F.A.A. Approves iPads in Cockpits, But Not for Passengers

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