Flying the silent skies

WASHINGTON -- Rep. John J. Duncan Jr. has heard cell phones go off at funerals, in movie theaters and in restaurants.

"There's a place for cell phones and there's a place not for cell phones," said Duncan, R-Tenn.

One place where cell phone use should not be allowed, he said, is on board airplanes that are in flight.

Duncan and two of his colleagues -- Reps. Peter DeFazio, D-Ore., and Jerry Costello, D-Ill. -- are introducing legislation that would ban the use of cell phones by passengers while in the air.

The United States and many other countries already prohibit the use of cell phones and certain other electronic devices during flights because they could interfere with the plane's navigational system.

But the European Union recently announced it would allow in-flight cell phone calls on all commercial airlines.

Duncan and other members of Congress are afraid the United States may try to go that route as well.

"We think this is something that shouldn't happen, and we want to intervene before it does," said DeFazio, chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee's Subcommittee on Highways and Transit.

The three lawmakers have titled their bill the Halting Airplane Noise to Give Us Peace Act -- or, appropriately, the HANG UP Act.

The ban would not apply to text messaging, nor would it bar passengers from talking over their phones while the plane is taxiing on the runway after landing.

Flight crew and attendants would be exempt from the restriction.

Foreign air carriers licensed in a country that allows cell phones on planes would have to get their governments to negotiate a special agreement with U.S. authorities regarding cell phone use on international flights coming into the United States.

Duncan said he knows what it's like to be stuck on a moving vehicle with passengers who can't stop yakking on their phones.

A few years back, he decided to give his son and his son's friend their first ride on an Amtrak train.

"It just became miserable because there were people in the seats behind us and across from us -- three people right in our section -- just talking the whole way on their cell phones," said Duncan, the subcommittee's top Republican.

What's more, people tend to talk louder on their cell phones than they do when talking to someone in person, which can make a train trip or a plane ride unbearable, Duncan said.

"Some people use their cell phones constantly," he said. "The world's not going to come to an end if they have to go one hour without using their cell phone."

(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, http://www.scrippsnews.com)