Apple’s latest iPhone commercial stars a proud flight crew member who, upon hearing the Captain’s announcement that they’re facing a 3-hour delay due to bad weather at their destination, whips out his iPhone, proves him wrong, and gets the flight underway.
Good for him? I guuuueeess… but he also comes across as quite the pompous bastard.
So, what’s worse?
How about having the same thing happen in real life, except this time with some random Joey Jackass wielding the iPhone, rather than a crew member?
Yea, that’d work.
Planebuzz reports that passengers on a flight from Memphis encountered just this scene. An annoyed passenger recounts: “We push back, get advised of a ground stop in MEM due to storms in the area. Go to the penalty box and wait. My Captain does the lecture over the PA… not one minute later, we get dinged from the F/A ‘Some guy with an IPhone says the weather is good, and wants to know what the real reason is for the delay. Is something wrong with the plane?’”
Oy.
[Now, given that I hate (hate, hate, hate) planes, this is not even the slightest bit amusing to me... even given the remote chance that he was simply trying to be helpful.]
Thankfully, the Captain had eaten his Flagrant Flakes that day. His response is nothing less than masterful (okay, cheeky, but masterful nontheless):
If the passenger with the IPhone would be kind enough to use it to check the weather at our alternate, calculate our fuel burn due to being rerouted around the storms, call the dispatcher to arrange our release, and then make a phone call to the nearest Air Traffic Control center to arrange our timely departure amongst the other aircraft carrying passengers with IPhones, then we will be more than happy to depart. Please ring your call button to advise the Flight Attendant and your fellow passengers when you deem it ready and responsible for this multi-million dollar aircraft and its passengers to safely leave.
I thank you, Sir.
