Is it unreasonable to conclude if he had just closed his laptop the incident would have never happened? Landing is a very stressful time for the flight staff. It's really not the best time to do the "just a second" routine which inevitably turns into 1-2 minutes or more. Maybe the flight attendant overreacted but I feel like we're missing some basic human courtesy here. We shouldn't be making someone's job harder and more stressful at the worst time and then act surprised when they get mad. I tend to side with the figure of authority in those situations. You know in the flight attendant's mind they're playing out the scenario of coming back 1-2 minutes later and asking again just to be told "one more second" again knowing if they fail to do their job they might get into trouble. Maybe they're not too tech savvy and truly believe these devices pose some real safety risk. They're on edge anticipating the passenger making an ugly scene. In this case there was a follow-up incident which probably came across to the flight attendant as baiting. In the end it was resolved without any real harm?
There are other ways to reprimand someone. Do we really need to arrest someone for "not closing their laptop quick enough"? Should we start arresting people who drive 5mph over the speed limit? Seems like when we're in the air, there are certain flight attendants that lose all their common sense. I have a feeling this stuff never happened before the "security theater" created from 9/11.
No, it's not reasonable. Half the plane keeps their computer on after the notice to turn them off. Half of those are wearing headphones and don't hear it, and the other half just don't care (there is, after all, no real reason for this rule). On no flight I've taken in the past 5 years have I ever turned off an electronic device the moment the cabin was notified.
I've never seen someone get yelled at for it. If I got yelled at over it, I'd complain to the airline. What happened to this guy seems worse.
