Flight attendants want American Airlines to block access to in-flight internet porn

A new kind of problem seems to be gathering storm in the air: Flight attendants with American Airlines, the world’s largest airline, have asked the company to filter its in-flight wireless internet service to block access to pornography and other websites which the workers believe are “inappropriate.”

Leaders of workers union have already discussed the issue with management of American Airlines, without making a formal request to bar specific websites on transcontinental flights, David Roscow, a spokesman for the Association of Professional Flight Attendants, said.

American Airlines, headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas, the United States, adjacent to the Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport, is one of many airlines experimenting with in-flight internet service.

The Association of Professional Flight Attendants represents 19,000 flight attendants in the United States.

American Airlines, a wholly owned subsidiary of the AMR Corporation, is the world’s largest airline in total passengers-miles transported and passenger fleet size; the second largest airline in terms of aircraft operated; and the second-largest airline company in the world in terms of total operating revenues.

According to the spokesman of the Association of Professional Flight Attendants, though viewing of online pornography has not been a problem on flights so far, the Association “wants to eliminate the potential for future trouble.” He asks: “Why bring on one more issue in an already stressful environment?”

It was on August 20, 2008, that American Airlines started testing an in-flight wireless internet system on its 15 transcontinental flights. The system is in a trial period of up to 6 months.

Porn problem on in-flight internet?

At the end of the trial period, American Airlines plans to evaluate feedback, including the number of actual incidents. In the meantime, it is the task of flight attendants to monitor the in-flight Web surfing.

The in-flight Wi-Fi system allows passengers to log on to the internet at their seats, without restrictions on what websites they can access

The newspaper Los Angeles Times quoted Tim Smith, a spokesman for American Airlines, as saying said in a statement: “It is nothing new for passengers to view pornographic material at their seats during flights. People have been able to take adult magazines and DVDs onto flights without restrictions, and the union is not objecting to those materials. Crews have successfully managed to resolve instances of other passengers taking offence to such materials.”

“We always hope our customers will use good judgment on what they view while on board our aircraft, and the vast majority does just that,” Smith added.

However, the spokesman for the Association of Professional Flight Attendants chose to differ with Tim Smith, saying: “Unrestricted internet access for passengers could potentially put flight attendants in unusually delicate situations. Why should the flight attendants be put in the position to police, deal with the people offended and in a position to view objectionable material in their workplace? I don’t know what the solution is, but we should try.”

While a few airlines such as JetBlue, the low-cost airline headquartered in the Forest Hills neighborhood of the New York City borough of Queens, the United States, use filtering software for their in-flight internet access, some other carriers, including American Airlines, leave it up to flight attendants to monitor passengers’ use of the Wi-Fi facility.