AP Photo

WHICH is worse: not being able to use a mobile phone while on board an aircraft—or being able to do so? Just about the last thing most people want is to be trapped next to someone nattering endlessly into a mobile phone, oblivious of everyone within forced earshot. Rudeness and lack of consideration know no bounds for some folk. And sad to report, as mobile phones have proliferated, such crass behaviour is no longer the isolated exception within an otherwise civil crowd. Were the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to relax its rule banning the use of mobile phones once an aircraft leaves the ground, there would be fist-fights aplenty above the clouds.