Airline Passenger Code of Conduct, Part 1

Should airlines stop passengers from viewing offensive material on their laptops--or look the other way?

What would you do if, on a cross-country flight in which every seat is taken, the guy next to you started watching a hard-core erotic video on his laptop?

I posed this question to readers of this column after I had read a surprising anecdote inThe New York Times.Here is what caught my attention in theTimes'"On the Road" column (published May 8) by Joe Sharkey:

Recently, [a female airline passenger] was in a window seat on a full flight from Newark to San Francisco, next to a man who opened his laptop on his tray table and began watching a hard-core pornographic DVD.

"It was hard to ignore, with him sitting that close," said [the passenger], who finally got up and asked a flight attendant what could be done, since she didn't want to engage the man. The answer: Nothing.

Why could nothing be done? The column offered an explanation from Tim Kirkwood, a former longtime flight attendant. '"Typically, there isn't much you can do that won't come back to haunt you later with some lawsuit or trouble," he told theTimes.

You can read the originalNew York Times article online, though it will cost you $5.

This anecdote raised lots of questions. Are airline attendants so worried about possible litigation from passengers that bad behavior, as long as it doesn't pose a health or security risk, is often ignored? Was the attendant concerned that the passenger might become disruptive or even violent if confronted? And if so, would that force the airplane captain to make an unscheduled (not to mention costly) stop in order to have the passenger arrested?

More questions: What should a female passenger--or male, for that matter--have said or done in this situation? Don't airlines have some kind of passenger code of conduct that prohibits the in-flight viewing of offensive material on a laptop, portable DVD player, or other device? If not, shouldn't there be one?

This is just not a porn thing, by the way. Plenty of mainstream videos include nudity, simulated sex, raw violence, and other material that might turn those seated near you into an uncomfortably captive audience.

And it's not just about what you watch, but how. For example, in " High Tech Etiquette, Part 2," I reported on a miserable flight endured by Joe Bruno of Wilton, Connecticut. Joe had the misfortune of being seated behind a family with four children. During the flight, two of the kids watched DVD videos--without earphones. The father chastised his kids, but to no avail. "I couldn't decide which was worse," Joe wrote, "[the father's] pleading with the brats or the awful sound of two movies at once." You can read more stories like this one in " High-Tech Etiquette, Part 1."

To find out if such a code exists, I did a spot check of several airlines' Contract of Carriage and Acceptance of Passengers legal explanations, which they post on their Web sites. I e-mailed several of the major airlines' public relations departments to inquire. And I checked the Web sites of the Transportation Security Administration and the Federal Aviation Administration. The answer? In short: There is no such code of conduct.

Airlines do have rules regarding passenger conduct, however vaguely worded they may be. For example, American Airlines' Acceptance of Passengers states: "American may refuse to transport you, or may remove you from your flight at any point, for one or several reasons, including but not limited to the following." The document goes on to list seven examples of behavior that may cause you to be kicked off a plane, but only number six comes close to addressing the offensive behavior described in theTimes:"Your conduct is disorderly, abusive, or violent, or you...refuse to obey instructions from any flight crew member."