Battle Over Phones on Planes Heating Up

— -- Yes, you can use phones on some planes -- to an extent. It's how we got a glimpse of what it's like to sit behind the "worst person in the world" from Ryan Case.

Case, an editor/director with the TV show "Modern Family," spent a long flight last week describing in amusing detail an allegedly loud, drunk and annoyingly profane fellow passenger: "I'm tweeting this so one of you will fund my defense team at my eventual murder trial." That's right, this was all on Twitter.

But what if voice calls were allowed on planes? Would Case have ditched her 20,000+ followers to share her observations with a single person? Who knows, but the movement to allow calls in cabins appears to be gaining ground.

Or is that a battleground?

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That's what some members of the Congress fear. In a recent letter to the Department of Transportation, Federal Communications Commission and others, 77 representatives mentioned concern for safety, specifically the potential for mid-air "disputes" (as they so delicately put it).

They then mentioned reclining seats and they have a point because one such seat dispute in August escalated from lots of yelling to drinks thrown in faces, a diverted flight and dumped passengers.

So where do we stand? Late last year, the Federal Aviation Administration said yes to phones being on from take-off to landing -- except for voice calls. Since then, the Federal Communications Commission has said they are open to voice calls, then asked for comments. They got an earful from the public, including these gems:

• From Everett, Washington: "Are you smoking crack? I don't pay high airfares to sit for 5 hours next to someone talking on their damn phone!"
• From Chicago: "I'm begging you. PLEASE JUST DON'T."

Meanwhile, there's been an interesting development overseas: The European Aviation Safety Agency said it will allow airline passengers to use electronic gadgets such as phones during entire flights without being in airplane mode, which appeared to be the last regulatory hurdle facing calls in the cabin for European airlines.

However, the airlines themselves still have the last word and some have said no.

Same in this country, and if calls are ever allowed in the U.S. -- still very much up in the air, and no pun intended -- it's likely some carriers will try to figure out how to rake in more fees from them, while others are clearly uncomfortable with the idea (as they were back in December when Delta, JetBlue and Southwest took a "no calls on planes" stance). In September, the head of the Association of Professional Flight Attendants was quoted as inviting Europeans to fly U.S. carriers in order to enjoy a soothingly quiet, call-free, trans-Atlantic experience.

Which brings up another point: Why do so many speak so loudly on mobile phones? And why are the conversations so annoyingly vapid? At 30,000 feet do you really want to hear, "Hey, guess where I am?!" or, "I'm on it, boss!" Surely such momentous communications could be texted or emailed. As another FCC commenter from Brooklyn complained, flying is a "terrible experience" these days, except for one thing: "Time away from other peoples' conversations on the cell phone! Don't take that away."

Or as the tweeting Ryan Case noted when her allegedly drunk and annoyingly loud fellow passenger disappeared into the lavatory for a while, "I forgot the joy of silence."