In-Flight Cellphone Conversations: Dream or Nightmare?

Two Republican lawmakers offered up bills to keep in place a ban on in-flight cell phone calls.

The Federal Communications Commission already ended a ban on in-flight emails and text messages, but is now considering allowing phone calls, as well. But two Congressmen, Bill Shuster of Pennsylvania and Lamar Alexander of Tennessee, say "no way."

“Imagine two million passengers, hurtling through space, trapped in 17-inch-wide seats, yapping their innermost thoughts,” Alexander said last week in a statement. “The Transportation Security Administration would have to hire three times as many air marshals to deal with the fistfights.”

Flight attendants are overwhelmingly in support of keeping the ban, seeing in-air conversations as potentially disruptive and unsafe. “Flight Attendants, as first responders and the last line of defense in our nation’s aviation system, understand the importance of maintaining a calm cabin environment,” read a statement from a flight attendant union. “Any situation that is loud, divisive, and possibly disruptive is not only unwelcome but also unsafe.”

The FCC votes on Thursday whether to move ahead with removing the ban. Read more here.