NB: This is a guest article by Anonymous (for obvious reasons).
Civil disobedience was an important feature of the US civil rights movement and the British suffragettes, as well as being core to Mahatma Gandhi's political campaigning.
But will the dark haired man pictured below sitting in seat 5B on a recent Virgin Australia flight from Sydney to Brisbane in mid-November be treated as kindly by history?
Despite airlines insisting that electronic devices be turned off when on board, the scientific merits of such policy can split people in a debate almost as passionately as the topic of global warming.
But whichever camp you fall into, is civil disobedience really acceptable when the policy you refuse to follow involves the safety of fellow passengers?
At what point does civil disobedience over a matter of principal become pure pig headedness and extreme selfishness showing a callous disregard to those around you on a flight - and who themselves have followed the instructions of cabin staff and turned off all electronic devices?
Interestingly, a recent Tnooz post titled Revealed: The most annoying air passenger behaviour, according to a global survey of flight crews made no mention of passengers refusing to turn off electronic devices.
But the passenger in 5B kept reading the Sydney Morning Herald on his iPad until being told personally by a flight attendant during taxiing to turn it off.
The announcement from the purser a few minutes prior was clear in stating that "electronic devices must now be turned off, and may only be used in flight if flight mode was selected prior to take-off".
Despite this, 5B (as we'll call now him) just put the tablet into the seat-back pocket despite a Telstra 3G connection clearly being still active.
When in the air and passengers were told "electronic devices may now be used provided flight mode was previously selected", 5B could clearly be seen using his iPad with text in the top left corner that alternated from "searching" to "no signal" to occasionally "Telstra 3G" with one or two bars showing.
On the rare occasions a signal was visible he immediately moved away from his iPad card game to check his email.
So the real question is this:
- Is the safety briefing from the purser just a formality that really means nothing, or should the sanctions be stricter for people that blatantly ignore the safety briefing and do as they please during a flight?
At what point does civil disobedience over a policy you disagree with lose any claim to occupying the moral high-ground?
NB: This is a guest article by Anonymous (for obvious reasons).