Flight attendant unions taking stand against in-flight cell phone use

• There's only been one steady refuge from cell phones: a plane in flight.
• And at the frontlines are the nation's flight attendants.
• "Yes, the last bastion of peace is being threatened," said Jeanne Elliott, regulatory affairs coordinator for the Professional Flight Attendants Association at Northwest Airlines.
• The association is urging its 11,000 members to write the Federal Communications Commission to oppose an end to the federal agency's in-flight cell phone ban, or at least urge a most cautious relaxation of it.
• The union's biggest concern is that folks would be gabbing on their cell phones while ignoring critical safety directives from flight attendants.
• The FCC is taking public comment on the matter until March 31.
• Also rallying members against any relaxation of restrictions on in-flight cellular chitchat is the Association of Flight Attendants, which represents more than 40,000 flight attendants at 26 airlines, including United and US Airways.
• No matter what the FCC does, however, smart airlines still won't allow cellular chat in flight, said Kevin Mitchell, chairman of the Business Travel Coalition, which represents major corporate purchasers of travel services.
• "They won't touch it with a 100-foot fuselage," he said.
• The CTIA, a wireless industry trade group, is careful about what it says.
• "We believe all the technology challenges will be overcome, and this service could be available," said spokesman Joe Farren.
• Up on the flight deck, pilots won't have to listen to passengers' gab.
• The pilots are most concerned with any possible interference with navigational systems and other critical electronics, said John Mazor, spokesman for the Air Line Pilots Association.
• "There have been anecdotal reports of electronic devices interfering with navigational systems," he said.
• Weighing heavily in any relaxation of FAA restrictions will be a report due next year from the RCTA, the Requirements and Technical Concepts for Aviation, a group comprised of dozens of representatives from the airlines, plane manufacturers, wireless service providers and phone manufacturers, airline employees and other interested parties.