A Delta Air Lines passenger refused to end their phone call or put their phone into airplane mode, and a Miami – Atlanta flight wound up having to be deplaned to remove them. It looks to me like this was flight 1323 on Monday based on the aircraft and delay.
Please be considerate. Please be considerate. Consider yourself and the rest of us.
Folks, everybody here, especially in first class, guys, excuse me, excuse me, everyone. Off the plane.
He’s not listening. Once again, folks, please make sure to grab your vitamins. Whatever it is.
Oh, man. You got 300 people having to do something crazy. So we’re all supposed to listen and he doesn’t? Just rip him off the plate. He’s in the front row.
Once again, folks, please remain calm at this time. Please remain calm at this time. Yeah. Thank you so much. You can follow.
People generally think:
- you need to just comply, because the result otherwise looks like this, even though
- the rule is stupid and selectively enforced but
- they don’t want to suffer through someone else’s calls onboard, either.
The FCC bans cellular phone use once the aircraft is airborne. FAA rules require passengers to follow airline procedures which generally require airplane mode once a plane’s doors are closed – that’s the bright line which is easier to enforce than wheels up (when flight attendants are seated).
No one thinks a single iPhone is going to break a 787. The concern, no matter how remote, is that given different antenna locations, potential for damaged devices and cheap electronics off TEMU, and multiple transmitters interacting together there could be issues with some sensitive system. Or that operating together and at scale many devices used by all passengers could create these issues.
And there’s a concern over ground networks, with phones ‘seeing’ many ground towers and moving rapidly between cells, increasing transmission power trying to maintain a link.
In contrast, many planes worldwide have approved systems that allow cell phone use – those onboard mobile systems use a picocell in the aircraft, so phones transmit at low power to the aircraft system, and the aircraft backhauls the traffic by satellite or air-to-ground link.
I do have to wonder, though, about a passenger who just refuses to get off their call. That’s going to end badly. If the call is important enough so that it’s worth things ending badly, it’s probably worth getting off. Even a plea of importance isn’t going to succeed, so they’re going to have to choose.
The only way to really keep a call going inflight is to fly on a part 135 carrier like JSX, which even has Starlink for strong connectivity, and that permits wifi calling – or fly private and call over the plane’s internet connection.
While that sucks for passengers that is standard protocol. If a passenger is asked to come off and won’t the police do not want to wrangle with someone and have others hurt. I’ve seen enough airplane/airport meltdown videos (not to mention traffic stops) where people think following police orders is optional and will actually fight the police. You don’t want someone thrashing around with innocent people around.
Possibly in this case they could have just deplanned first class as this moron was sitting up front. When the crew decides you’re coming off, you’re done.
Put on a No Fly List and trespassed from the airport. And Miami Dade cops do not play treat the thug like a toddler games. They won’t stand there for 30 minutes and beg you to comply. You’re coming off and quickly.
FAFO
@George Romey — This does seem to happen in Florida a lot…
Many, many, many years ago on a ME airline, a fellow passenger asked me to switch off my portable CD player, in case it interfered with the planes navigation.
I told him to let me know if we ventured off track or started to dive, and I would
I’ve wondered more than once why planes don’t have cell blockers. Time to leave? flip a switch and bye-bye cell signal within a 100-foot radius. No more relying on passengers following the rules, just eliminate the issue. Upon landing, flip it again, and the signal returns. Yes, I know cell blockers are illegal in the US, but I’d expect that issue could be overcome with legislation.
You’ve your homework on the technical issues of personal electronic devices and aircraft systems and you explained it sensibly and succinctly. Well done.
No airline is going to risk another “Dr. Dao” like what happened on Republic Airways (United Express) nine years ago. That crew called in security to remove a passenger who wouldn’t deplane (Dr. Dao) and he resisted (fought) the security officers – who used excessive force and injured him as they dragged him off the plane – resulting in the video and public backlash we all saw.
Crews now will force everyone off, even including themselves, instead. If the pilots aren’t going, how are you going to?
Having social media and the publicity around the Dr. Dao incident helped bring to light the lack of training and bad practices of the Chicago security officers. Without it, many other passengers could have the same thing happen to them without anyone hearing about it. But the unintended consequence is the likelihood everyone will be further inconvenienced (and forced to deplane) if one idiot is acting up and not following crew member instructions.
@Sarah M. — Woah, woah, woah. This is quite different than Dr. Dao. Delta didn’t do anything wrong here. United messed up with UA3411; they over-sold the flight. Do not besmirch Dr. Dao’s good name on here!
@Ron – It sounds simple, but jamming is far more problematic than it seems at first. Cell jammers don’t selectively block phones, they flood radio spectrum with interference, which is exactly what aviation systems are designed to avoid. Critical functions like navigation, radar altimeters, and ATC communications depend on clean signals. And as you’ve correctly pointed out, in the U.S., the bigger issue is regulatory, the FCC bans airborne cellular use largely to protect ground networks from interference. A moving jammer would create a roaming disruption zone that’s even harder to justify. It would also block emergency calls, which is a major legal and safety problem.
@Steve — Ahh, the ole Bart Simpson… “Turn it back on! Turn it back on!”
I can’t stand entitled people and their stupid phones. This guy really was that inconsiderate? He just had to stay on that important call at the INCONVENIENCE of 300 other people and potential cost of others missing connecting flights? If the call was that important and scheduled at the same time as his flight, he should have booked a later flight. The phone culture is toxic.
@D Fray — Having a malignant narcissist as our leader isn’t a good role model for the people…
Follow. The. Damn. Rules.
Ban them on the airline.
@1990
Obama hasn’t been President since 2016.
That must be the malignant narcissist of whom you speak?
@Jay Gee — Bah! Sure, no-drama O-bama…
(Also, technically, he was President until noon EST on January 20, 2017…)
Dao deserved it.
On Delta, you only get premium delays.
The EU dropped the Airplane Mode rule several years ago. No planes have fallen out of the sky yet. And I guarantee you that on almost every U.S. flight there are multiple phones where the users just plain forget to turn them off.
@O’Hare Is My Second Home — Take it back! I’m sooo fake-outraged!!
@1990 – I wondered how long it would take you to get there. You know you guys (libs / dems / communists) are very impressionable and it is why your party supporters keep trying to end 47 and all the school incidents.
Mainello: You know you guys are very retarded with quite evident fetal alcohol syndrome and it is why your party supporters keep trying to end people actually concerned with good governance in favor of fascism.
@Michael Mainello — You ‘escalated’ to suggestions of ‘violence,’ not me. I was merely referring to the selfishness of the passenger on the phone.
@1990 – “Having a malignant narcissist as our leader isn’t a good role model for the people…”
Claiming ignorance is a defense that is rarely successful. Your minions are violent and it takes very little to set them off.
To bad you and your party take their actions as a badge of honor and means to win the election. Get some real policies for America to rally support. Instead you will use the slimestream media to slant the news and protect your crooked, malignant party.
@Gary – Remind us again why you think permitting cell phone calls on commercial flights is such a great idea when we have incidents like this happening?
Idiots like this passenger are why my headphones go on as soon as I’m in my seat for 40 years! Zero interest in hearing their voice or their brain numbing phone call!
When this happens they should be violently removed and banned from any plane for life! Rent a car or a rowboat if transoceanic!!
@1900 – Actually, no. You’re spreading misinformation. Dr. Dao’s Republic (United Express) flight wasn’t “oversold.” What happened was there were two flights to Louisville that day, and the one prior to the flight Dr. Dao was on was cancelled. To prevent significant disruptions to the next morning’s flight out of Louisville (because the crew of the cancelled flight obviously wouldn’t be there), this crew was deadheaded on the next available flight, United 3411. But there were not three available seats, so United denied boarding to Dr Dao.
That’s not “oversold” which implies bad seat management. That’s responding to a schedule disruption, which I’d expect you, as an avid airline enthusiast, to know the difference. In fact, claiming it was oversold is one (of many) inaccuracies about what happened (reports also claimed Dr Dao was removed for “standby employees” – not true. They also ignored the fact that Dr. Dao initially got off, then ran back around airline employees, to go to the plane and re-boarded the flight before he was removed by security the second time).
But regardless of who did wrong on that flight, as expected (and once the lawyers got involved) the airlines (not just United) have swung the pendulum to the other extreme. To avoid any negative press when a passenger won’t voluntarily leave the plane when asked to do so, they will not be forced (dragged) off. No airline wants to risk another viral video (unless it’s an actual arrest by law enforcement officers). So, instead, when someone refuses to get off, expect at a minimum for everyone to have to deplane, or expect the flight to cancel to force everyone off. That was my point you seemed to have missed.
@Michael Mainello — I’m not the one suggesting violence on here.
@Sarah M. — (It’s 1990.) Thank you for admitting that United cancelled one of two flights, leading to those problems. You can attempt to downplay United’s responsibility, but, fact is, they messed up, and the whole world knows it. And, the attempt to defame him following that mess-up took it from bad to worse. Really should be a case-study in public relations schools. So, that’s why Dr. Dao is both a ‘meme’ and a warning. Passengers deserve better. Shall we do ‘United Breaks Guitars’ next?
@1990 – Or how about United kills pets? The giant bunny saddened me the most.
@1990 – Narcissist is OK, adding malignant is what triggers violence. I thought you were smart enough to understand.
“They” … WTF
The guy was a HIM, as are most entitled pricks.
@1990 & @O’Hare Is My Second Home
“April 28, 2026 at 1:44 pm
Mainello: You know you guys are very retarded with quite evident fetal alcohol syndrome and it is why your party supporters keep trying to end people actually concerned with good governance in favor of fascism.”
@ 1990 -See you have to be careful about your language. O’Hare was triggered by what you said.
@O’Hare – Please define fascism. Our party selected its nominee, your party ignored the candidate and selected a (losing candidate). The Dems are the “No Kings party”.
@1900: You still don’t seem to understand. I make no defense of United; they obviously handled it wrong, and it cost them quite a lot in both money and reputation. A.I. says over half of the pilots and flight attendants at United today were not even working there when Dr. Dao got beat up and dragged of that flight, yet we’re still talking about it nine years later, after all.
But if you get into the actual specifics of what happened compared to how it was reported, we were told it was a “good guy” (Dr. Dao) vs. “bad guy” (United) story. The truth speaks more of a “bad guy” vs. “bad guy” incident, and as always – what lead up to his removal isn’t on video. You almost never see that part of any incident (when do you see what started a flight at the Spirit ticket counter? Nobody films the lead-up). So even if a passenger IS “in the wrong” it could show on social media as the exact opposite. All airlines don’t want to take that chance.
So, my point is the Dr. Dao incident was the trigger for ALL of the airlines’ overreaction to similar cases. Now, if someone won’t leave the plane when asked to do so – EVERYONE is forced off (either by just telling everyone to get off, or by canceling the flight). There are only two ways for this to play out. Either the noncompliant passenger will follow the crowd off the plane (airline gets the result they want – passenger wasn’t dragged off with accompanying video) or if the passenger stubbornly refuses to get off (and is the last one onboard, with only the flight attendants still on board), there is nobody now to film them getting removed by airport security. Either way, the offending passenger is removed without another social media video that only shows part of the story.
@Christian — Beautiful assist!
@Michael Mainello — Violence bad… left, right, up, down. I don’t speak for @O’Hare Is My Second Home, but I wish we could all agree that a cult of personality using scapegoats (immigrants, trans people, whomever) in order to obtain and keep power isn’t a ‘benevolent’ approach.
@Sarah M. — Pardon my earlier tongue-in-cheek (I actually do enjoy the discussion here). We certainly agree that no one wants incidents like these to happen. The Dr. Dao fiasco was service-related (United made operational choices; it was not directly safety related); this Miami flight was behavioral (passenger violating FAA rules, failing to follow crew instructions, so directly safety-related). Incidents like these very much are a legacy of the post-Dr. Dao world we now live in.
Yes, United’s mishandling of the Dr. Dao incident did “cost them quite a lot in both money and reputation.” And, following it, US airlines had to make difficult choices on how to handle future disruptions, regardless of who may or may not be to blame, partially or fully. United specifically changed its crew deadheading rules (crews must be booked at least 60-minutes prior to departure). And, United launched new apps and specialized teams to give gate agents more autonomy to offer higher vouchers, book passengers on rival airlines, or even arrange private car transport, to resolve a seating conflict before it escalates. Within a year of the UA3411 incident, United reported a 90% reduction in passengers being forced off flights. Well done on them.
For over-bookings, I found the increases in ‘bumping’ compensation to be most productive. (I know, I know… that wasn’t the issue in this particular post about cell phone user.) For instance, Delta went up from $1,350 to $9,950; United matched to $10,000; they have new ‘bidding’ software, too. Like, all of that is actually good for affected consumers. (Sure, Dr. Dao might not have taken the offer, but perhaps another passenger would have.) Carriers added new ‘once seated’ rules, too; American and United have policies now that they will ‘never involuntarily remove a passenger who has already boarded and been seated, except for safety or security reasons.’ (So, that would have helped Dr. Dao, but not with the cell phone.) And, many airlines updated their manuals to specify that law enforcement should only be summoned for safety or security threats, not for ‘service-related’ issues like over-booking. (That Chicago unit was stripped of its ‘police’ status and de-certified as an agency after the Dr. Dao incident.)
What would you have done differently or better?
@1990 – What a specious argument. Is this willful or are you truly a one dimensional thinker?
“..but I wish we could all agree that a cult of personality using scapegoats (immigrants, trans people, whomever)…”
First off your arguments are not in a vacuum, but read and interpreted by other simple minded supporters, so yes your comments do have weight.
Second, 45 / 47 is not scapegoating these individuals, you are. LEGAL IMMIGRATION is good. Illegal invaders are bad. Let me give you an example some that dies of natural causes is dead. Some one killed by an illegal invader is also dead. Should we ignore murder because both people are dead?
As far as gays, he says live and let live. Concrete examples would be appreciated or please retract your statement.
You are becoming intellectually lazy.
Once again, the Social Reprobate per Capita measure on that rolling Reality TV Series called Delta Airlines continues.
With Spirit out of the way, one would expect Delta will see a jump in their already high numbers of “Police Calls per Departures” figure.
Delta. Always Climbing.
@Michael Mainello — Yes, legal immigration is good, for the country, for our economy, for all sorts of reasons; however, we have to actually create, enforce, properly fund, and update those laws and rules, time to time.
So, why did this President urge Republicans to reject the Lankford-Murphy-Sinema bi-partisan border security and immigration bill in early 2024? And, clearly Republican leadership was also against prior attempts, such as the 2013’s ‘Gang of Eight’ bill (McCain, Rubio, Schumer), which passed the Senate, but then Boehner (R) killed it in the House. Otherwise, we’d need to go back to the 1986 Act, Reagan’s ‘amnesty’ bill, which I hope we can agree was a net positive, but it did not actually enforce the employer sanctions, and ultimately led to where we are today.
Instead, what we have today is just Stephen Miller’s performative and actual ‘brutality’ as a policy; which is worse than no policy at all. Killing American citizens. Extrajudicially renditioning people to third countries into forever gulags. Much less unconstitutional, that cruelty clearly hasn’t worked well for anyone, politically or otherwise, except perhaps those profiting off the private prisons functioning as apparent concentration camps on our soil (not literal death camps, I sure hope). Either way, it’s an ethical, moral failure on a level not seen since Japanese Internment and the Trail of Tears. An objective history will not judge us kindly for these times.
@Michael Mainello — Oh! Almost forgot: Why is the $400-million donor-funded White House ballroom now seeking funding via Senate Republicans? Did no one tell Lindsey Graham about the donors? Huh. Odd.
And, if we’re really concerned about national security, probably should actually properly fund the Secret Service. Why hasn’t Speaker Johnson (R) put up the Senate DHS bill yet? Huh, again. Odd, again.
One more thing… the Iran war. Yeah, the 60 days is up (May 1, 2026, technically, so two more days). Ahh, that pesky 1973 law… And, just 34% support for the new war. What happened to ‘rally-around-the-flag’?
“Lucy, you got some ‘splaining to do!”
@1990 – Deflection. Lots of words, no answers. Waiting on apologies or retraction of your dangerous lies.
@1990: What would I have done differently or better? Good question.
Let’s assume I’m one of the crew working that flight, and assume we are operating under the rules in place at the time. And I just got the word that we are overbooked by one, and the passenger they want to involuntarily bump doesn’t want to get off the plane. And I had no time to prepare. This is what I would have probably done:
1) Asked one of the DH pilots if they would consider taking the jumpseat. If there wasn’t a weight issue (IDK if there was) that would free up the seat. Problem solved.
2) It’s possible that was tried and a DH pilot refused, or they didn’t think of that. Next to do (at the time, and basically still policy today) is to call the gate supervisor to remove the passenger. That’s where things went south (because they then brought in an untrained “security team”), but I’d probably still would have done that back then (called in the supervisor). If the supervisor cannot get them off the plane, then what?
3) To be frank, I’d probably lie. I’d tell the passengers that this delay has caused us to “time out” (go beyond our legal max duty day) and we are either going to get reassigned to another flight and a different crew will operate this one, or this flight will cancel altogether. Either way, I’d say we all have to deplane and go back in the terminal. Then, when everyone turns around and gets back on (except one) and sees it’s the same crew, I’d make a PA on the plane, saying we got an extension approved to our duty day, to prevent the flight’s cancellation (FYI – that can actually happen. Pilots can extend their duty day up to two hours under certain circumstances). I’d seen that move pulled long before “Dr. Dao” and was kind of surprised they didn’t do it in his case.
Today? What to do? Same steps (except the “offer” for anyone to deplane comes with much better financial incentives, and I really like the reverse-auction method) with no escalation to any “security team” that is hair-triggered to use force, unless the passenger’s conduct is criminal.
Good discussion.
@1990 – Thanks for answer on immigration. The reason the Republicans didn’t vote for your bills is that Democrats can’t be trusted and they would abuse and not fund corrections. President Reagan thought he could trust the Dems and never received his funding. So your actions are the reason.
Ballroom – “As of April 2026, the construction of the new White House ballroom is primarily funded by private donations, although the project has faced controversy and calls for taxpayer funding.
Fortune
Fortune
+1
Key Details Regarding the Ballroom Project
Funding Source: President Donald Trump has maintained that the project, estimated to cost between, is funded by private donors and himself.
Donors: A list of 37 donors includes tech companies, corporations with government contracts, and individuals, with funds funneled through the nonprofit Trust for the National Mall.
Controversy and Costs: While marketed as privately funded, some Republican senators have suggested the project may require in taxpayer funds to complete. Additionally, federal lawsuits and debates over the legality of bypassing Congressional approval for the renovation have occurred.
Background: The project involves the demolition of the East Wing to build a 90,000-square-foot structure, with construction starting in September 2025.
Security Costs: While construction is private, security enhancements and modifications for the structure are expected to be funded by the U.S. Secret Service.
The project has been criticized by some as an ethics concern, with worries regarding influence-peddling by donors, while supporters argue it is a necessary upgrade to White House security and functional capacity.”
@Sarah M. — Creative! I think the financial incentives likely prevent the Dr. Dao situation. Agreed. Good talk.
@Michael Mainello — Honestly, would be nice to see this Congress actually deliberate and pass legislation, for once. Fetterman is already on-board.
Update: House passed the Senate DHS bill today; TACO.
Airlines need to make it clear. You don’t listen you don’t fly – Period. Making nice with folks that are problematic is bad business and bad customer service. You resist your going to jail, otherwise backseat to the edge of the airport and put on the curb you return your going to jail.
The public demands it’s done this way. They cannot tolerate the site of someone being dragged off. So punish everyone because of a way too sensitive public.
Wish we could find out who her employer is and make sure she gets fired.