The loneliest person in the world

Capt Cor Blokzijl, DFO

The loneliest person in this world was described in the SundayTimes, some time ago.

The person was a single male, walking in New York City on a Sunday morning and his mobile phone had run out of battery power. Nobody in the world would talk to him, since everybody was walking with a mobile at his/her ear chatting continuously. On early Sunday morning, the shops were all closed and he could not get a battery charger. He was an outcast in this world and nobody wanted to talk to him………

Apparently we can not survive without our mobile phones anymore…..the world of communication is hooked to this electronic gadget. (If you don’t phone you listen to music.) Well it must be, otherwise there is no explanation for the fact that even before the last passenger is down the step-ladder, the crew is communicating. Not to each other, but to whoever is at the other end of the (mobile) line. They walk back to FLOPS fully busy, through the mobile phone

On every flight we fly as a passenger, we hear the safety demo and listen to the announcement that it is forbidden to use mobile phones on board the aircraft. However we do it ourselves all times, even on the apron we are already making calls, which must be of such importance that we can not wait till we are in the terminal building and have checked-out.

When we fuel our car at the fuel station, we see the sign of a mobile phone with a red diagonal line through it. We know, no mobile phoning allowed. On the ramp, we do not care if refueling is in progress or not……..everybody; crew, technical department staff, ground handling, everybody uses his/her mobile phone…..

From UK I found the following text and I am sure our DGCA is of the same opinion:

The CAA strongly discourages the use of mobile phones in the vicinity of aircraft, because of the risk of distraction, aircraft system interference and possibly fire. Whereas the risk of a spark of sufficient intensity to ignite fuel vapour released during fuelling is extremely remote, under normal circumstances, the risk of a mobile phone user becoming distracted is much greater and may result in physical contact with the aircraft and injury. Signals from mobile phones can also interfere with fuel gauge readings, navigation equipment and may cause spurious fire/smoke warnings in cargo/baggage holds.

Especially the fact that one is distracted and the hearing is partly disabled makes it very dangerous on the ramp. You might not hear the noises which could warn you for imminent danger.