The terrorist threat level in the UK has been downgraded, which means passengers can now take hand luggage onto planes. But not before this happened:
The British Airways flight was turned back after a mobile phone was heard ringing at the back of the plane.
No one admitted owning the phone so flight BA179 with 217 passengers on board returned to Heathrow as a precautionary measure.
I’m not surprised no-one admitted the phone was theirs – they’d have likely been lynched by their fellow passengers. But, hopefully once back on the ground, it won’t be too hard to identify the owner of the mobile phone, and to name and shame the selfish passenger.
Not only a matter of shame.
Actually, seeing international regulations (and actual situation) the owner of the mobile phone is going to be denounced. It’s a criminal offense to keep a mobile phone turned on without permission during a flight, just like it is to smoke on board on non-smoking flights.
But trust me, people would never understand: making them shutting their mobiles off even during a refuelling with passengers on board is a real pain…