My buddy Jeremy, who I met years ago, I believe on an Air New Zealand delivery flight for their new 777-300, is a popular and talented aviation photographer. He recently tweeted something concerning, a risk which all travelers should know about.
“Honest question: can a crew member physically prevent me from getting off of the airplane until I showed them the contents of my phone (they wanted to see the last 3 photos) to verify that I did not take a photo that contained them in it.”
Honest question: can a crew member physically prevent me from getting off of the airplane until I showed them the contents of my phone (they wanted to see the last 3 photos) to verify that I did not take a photo that contained them in it. pic.twitter.com/d6m42a8ck4
— JDL (@photoJDL) October 28, 2022
The incident happened on October 28 on an American Airlines flight (AA 5510) operated by PSA between Charlotte and Asheville. Jeremy was tweeting back and forth with other avgeeks and included some disturbing details.
Jeremy writes: “I was off the plane and the FA had the captain prevent me from going further down the jetbridge and then brought me *back* onto the plane and took the phone out of my hands.”
“I had stepped into the jetbridge and the FA had what I think was the pilot or FO block me from going further. Then they brought me back on the plane and the FA demanded I open my phone and show them the last several photos and then took the phone out of my hands to inspect them.”
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Jeremy is a smart man who understands airline policies. He went on to tweet: “I get that they may have a policy about not photographing staff without their permission. I get that and support that. Does suspecting a passenger violated that enable them to functionally detain someone and search a personal device?”
I’ve sent Jeremy a message asking for more information about what happened but he’s definitely not the first nor the last passenger to whom this has happened, which is the point of this article.
As Zach Honig, a very popular aviation blogger, who used to work for The Points Guy, wrote: “This is incredibly upsetting to hear. I can’t believe they thought for a moment that it’s acceptable to force you back onto the plane and demand to see your phone. Sorry this happened to you ?”
Zach has firsthand experience with this as he wrote a post in 2015 titled: “When Photography Gets You in Trouble at 35,000 Feet.”
Zach was on another American Airlines flight, a widebody to London with his girlfriend. “The purser was accusing her of taking pictures on the plane, which, apparently is forbidden. Except that it’s not — well, not exactly. The thing is, Sarah didn’t even have a camera — I was the one taking pictures. The purser went so far as to say “this could be trouble for the both of you,” which carried some pretty serious implications, especially given the current state of commercial air travel.”
Zach contacted American Airlines PR and they confirmed the policy to him with this statement: “American allows photography and video recording for personal use. For many customers, taking photos and sharing them on social networks has become part of their travel experience. When photographs and video are used for professional purposes, we do our best to notify flight crews so they are aware and prepared to offer some additional latitude with journalists and bloggers.”
Another AvGeek, Charles Ryan Teo, replied to Jeremy’s thread stating: “I had crew insisting on me deleting the photos but that was during the flight. I was on Transasia. No issue with other crew on this flight, only with this particular one. I was just taking photos of the cabin and nothing else.”
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@dubshn1028 from Ireland chimed in with: “It happens a lot of some European airlines where a warning is given not to photo crew or pax but they can photograph the outside of the plane I know some of the bloggers get away with it.”
Personally, I have also had a similar experience in 2006 while flying Newark to Porto, Portugal on TAP. I was on a government/airline-funded press trip and was shocked that within a minute of boarding the aircraft, I was scolded. I wrote on my blog: “I got off to a bad start with the flight attendant, because when I first sat down I took a picture. He came over and said, “no pictures allowed on the plane.” I thought he was joking, but he wasn’t. Have you ever heard of such a stupid thing? I reverted to sneaking pictures (not using a flash) so I could share my experiences with you.”
I can understand about not wanting me to take photos of the flight attendants and other passengers, which I almost never do without asking for their permission but not being able to take photos of the seat, the food and myself is ridiculous.
I did take a big chance, continuing to take pictures, which I wouldn’t do today. It was dumb, especially on a foreign airline as I could have ended up in jail. My advice includes a few basic and simple things:
1. Don’t take photos of the crew or other passengers without their permission.
2. If asked not to take photos, stop.
3. If asked to delete your photos, it’s best to comply or risk being banned from the airline, losing your status/miles or worse, being arrested (depending on the country).
Have you ever been yelled at or physically detained because you took photos on a plane? If yes, please share the details (airline, year, what happened) in the comments section.
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If you are an American and you are in a flight in America, I can almost 100% guarantee that any court in our land would find that your rights were violated and that you could easily sue and receive damages.Regardless of signage, by the way. Signage is quite often there to play upon your feelings. Laws matter. Policies are what people would like to have us all behave. Further, it doesn’t sound like you have any signage in your story so this is in your favor in the eyes of the court in terms of your innocent intentions.
First, air transportation is governed by the federal government. These are not private entities with privileges like going into someone’s home or even a private business as the photographs were presumably taken in the areas accessible by the general passenger group. Areas governed as public areas have the following caveats to everyone who does anything in public. That is, there is no expectation of privacy in public. Period. If you do not wish to be photographed or depicted in public you should obscure yourself or avoid the public. Period. Cops all wear cameras, almost all businesses have cameras recording you.
Next, a “policy” doesn’t mean anything as compared to violating your constitutional rights, your right to avoid unlawful detainment and to move about freely. Since a flight attendant has been granted powers as they relate to air safety you might consider them authorized to do something like this, but this has nothing to do with that.
Further contributing factors, you were at the least, defamed, embarrassed and coerced into handing over your property.
Since your damages were the pictures lost, I can imagine this being just a way of further proving this person was being a tyrant in the eyes of a judge.
If you have any doubts, simply type in “first amendment audit” into YouTube.
I’d be very surprised if you got less than $10,000 in a quick settlement. FornAA to avoid embarrassing themselves, the flight attendant is an idiot.
Who know if you are a perv taking upskirt pic. Great that they kust ask you to delete the pic and not arrest your sorry behind. On plane or ship, captain is king, you got no rights. What’s so good about taking a cabin picture for a sick fetish.
Since when is it illegal to take pictures of people? Audio recording someone varies state to state, but taking a picture, even accidentally of someone is generally legal, unless that person sues you and the court deems otherwise.
I would think that you have a legal case, if anyone does here. For illegal detainment without probable cause of a crime, there’s really no need for the airline staff to have detained you or prevented you from going about your business.
I could be wrong, and I don’t know all of the details, but the scenario you were put in just seems ethically and legally wrong.
Lexi , you ll be kissing ? my ass. ???
Nice one JESSICAT I love it ?? ?
Robert, What if my workplace is a stadium? People who bought tickets to sit in a seat there shouldn’t take photos of my workplace? There may be legit reasons, but yours isn’t one of them.
Lexi, You’re feeding into the untrue stereotype that all flight attendants are on power trips and can do whatever they want to passengers, like confiscate their phones and delete any files they don’t like, as you state you have proudly done “multiple times.”? As a global million miler on AA, Delta, UA, etc. all FAs are NOT nasty to customers in the manner you claim you were, it’s just a few bad apples. Were you by chance fired?
The worst airline I ever worked for.
Have we become so bored that this is big news? Who really cares?
I absolutely want people to take videos if there is any abuse on the plane by workers (or by passengers). Sometimes that’s the only evidence that makes the difference, especially when passengers are violently removed and then blamed falsely by staff. Remember the guy that was dragged off a United Airlines overbooked flight a few years ago to make room for staff?
Next time take Greyhound.
Am I missing something? What about all of the videos that make it to Twitter, Snapchat, etc. that include other passengers or FA?
You were on a flight that departed from a US airport and arrived at a US airport. The flag of the carrier is irrelevant. (For those who said foreign aircrews might have different legal authorities.)
You are in a place of business while on a flight. Any restrictions on camera use should have a sign posted alerting people to the policy. If there is no sign, there is no policy. I guarantee that if you took a video of a passenger battering an FA, the crew would be grateful to get a copy. Like any other place of business that is open to the public, people have no expectation of privacy. If someone prefers not to be in your pictures or videos, they need to ask you not to include them.
Once you deplaned, you were no longer under the flight crew’s authority. Even in midflight, the crew cannot take control of your property. They can ask you to place it in your carry-on bag, but snatching it from you is illegal. Forcing you to move from point A to point B against your will is kidnapping or perhaps false imprisonment.
As someone else noted, my photos upload to two cloud services immediately while connected to the network or Wi-Fi. As soon as I take my phone out of airplane mode, the pictures (and any other work) upload.
If my refusing to give them access to my phone means they ban me from the airline, I will fly with another. However, I will make the C-suite spend at least 20 hours responding to my communications and BBB complaints. The police at the arrival airport will waste more of the crew’s time because I will swear out warrants for kidnapping, theft, destruction of property, battery, and whatever else I believe fits the bill.
Practice saying “No,” with a smile on your face. You can add color, “I did not leave anything, thank you.” Or, “I decided I could hold it until I could get to the restroom in the terminal.” Perhaps, “Sorry, my ears clog up, and I can barely hear you. Did you say you wanted to give me free flight vouchers? If so, please email those to me. Thanks,” and keep walking.
We encourage people to act in an unacceptable manner when we allow them to treat us that way. If some sheep wish to surrender their freedoms to a self-officious crew member, that is their right. My right is to abide by my policies. I printed them in 0.25-point font on the page where I entered my address on my receipt when I purchased the ticket. If they chose not to read the 600,000 characters, that is not my problem.
How would I like it if someone came into my place of business and took pictures that included me with my knowledge? How would I know since they did it without my knowledge? That is an inane question. If I am in a place where other people can be, I do not expect privacy. On the other hand, if you took pictures of what work I was doing, you would go to prison for unauthorized access to classified materials. I will let you know how I feel after your sentencing hearing. I suspect I will be smiling.
Be the shepherd, not the sheep.
Why should it matter unless your doing something you shouldn’t! With someone you shouldn’t be with! Photos are photos and unless your naked on the plane, It shouldn’t matter. Who cares. People today act to demoratic and make mountains out of molehills! Grow up!