No personal items in the seat back pocket

[RatherBFlyin]

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/08/business/08road.html

Hmm, this is a new one. I don't recall ever having been given any grief over putting a book/magazine/whatever in the seat back pocket so that it is easily accessible during flight. Has anyone here run into this problem?

[sanins192]

I suppose it is a lot safer to just leave books / iPods / magazines on the floor and in the aisle.

I haven't heard anything like this before. Hmm.. Just googling this comes up with a lot of results, but I can't say this is breaking news on the TV. Interesting.

[a.trailblazer7]

Never, and I've flown quite a bit in my life. What airline is making or has made a fuss?

[Aaron Robinson]

This is not Industry News. Topic moved.

[FJ flyer]

That's silly.

[NWADC9]

What airline is making or has made a fuss?

Northwest, Mesaba, and Pinnacle (latter two operating as Northwest Airlink) mentioned this when I flew them last summer, stating that the seatback pocket is not an approved storage area.

[RatherBFlyin]

The article also specifically mentioned SkyWest.

[Samuel Arnold]

Obviously it's FAA, therefore only applies to US carriers. Phew.

It is really stupid. Where else do you put your camera, iPod, water bottle, chocolate bars, books, etc.?

On a recent long-haul flight with SQ, my seat back pocket was bulging so much I thought it would fall off. I'd removed the magazines to my neighbour's one to make space!

Despite all, how will they enforce it?
"Attention passengers. Staff will now conduct a spontaneous search of your personal space, and any foreign items in the pockets will be confiscated."

[steve63]

I find the size of the carry ons put in the overheads to be a much more
serrious problem and all it will take is for one of these bags (which the owner
had to ask for help to get it up there in the fist place) to come crashing down
on some poor persons head and break their neck and that will be the end of carry on bags.

I was on a Northwest flight 2 years ago and a family that was in front of us checked in and to my surprise
took all their bags with them. After I was seated I was surprised to see the same family getting on and of
course they were the last people to board and were already 5 minutes late. Needless to say because the bags
were so big there was no room to put them in the overhead bins so the cabin crew spent 5 minutes rearanging the
bins and after that 2 bags would still not fit and had to go below as checked baggage. We were now 15 minutes late
for pushback and the wife was pissed that her bag was down below.

10 minutes after takeoff we hit some bad turbulance and one of the bins that had one of these bis bags in it popped
open and the bags came flying out two smaller bags hit two different passengerson the way down but fortunately the big
bag just missed the passenger under it when it bounced off the seat back and onto the floor.

I would much sooner have the overhead bags checked more for size and wieght than worry about some papperback in a
seat pocket.

[Samuel Arnold]

I would much sooner have the overhead bags checked more for size and weight than worry about some paperback in a seat pocket.

But what airlines DON'T check your carry on bags? Every airline I've flown have weighed and visually sized my carry on bag, and it's always been to spec.
That's appalling that huge bags feel out on a passenger. What sort of aircraft was it? Most overhead bins have firm catches.

[sanins192]

When I flew CO last month they did not tell anyone to remove items from the seatback pockets. Perhaps this is just internal flights?

I have to admit I've seen baggage bins open on their own, although I've never seen anyone be seriously injured by a falling bag.

I would much sooner have the overhead bags checked more for size and weight than worry about some paperback in a seat pocket.

But what airlines DON'T check your carry on bags? Every airline I've flown have weighed and visually sized my carry on bag, and it's always been to spec.
That's appalling that huge bags feel out on a passenger. What sort of aircraft was it? Most overhead bins have firm catches.

It's quite surprising how large some carry on bags can be. I'm guessing that there were a large number of these 'larger' style carry on bags on the flight, and as such the bins don't accomodate a lot of these bags.

[detpilot]

Obviously it's FAA, therefore only applies to US carriers. Phew.

Not even all US carriers. It's just Skywest, apparantly (not to say that others don't have this rule). From the article:

SkyWest, a regional airline that operates as a subcontractor for United, Delta and Midwest, had obtained from its regional F.A.A. office express approval of its own in-flight operating manual, which prohibits passengers from putting anything into the seat-back pockets, citing safety concerns.

...which means that skywest put this in their operating manual. Since that manual was approved by the FAA, it becomes an FAA rule, but only for the operation of that airline.

[NWADC9]

But even Northwest and its affiliates mentioned it as well.

[Northwestdc9]

Right, on Northwest/Delta it's generally mentioned in the safety briefing but no one pays attention. I think the main problem is when people stuff laptops in them, either breaking the pocket or their laptop and suing (This is America afterall). I know I've done it a few times and it's a recipe for disaster.

[Samuel Arnold]

Well, if we can't put our stuff in the pocket, the FA's will just have to put up with me getting up every 10 minutes to access my cabin bag.

SQ certainly didn't like me doing that. The purser actually ordered me to speak with him behind the galley curtain, as a couple of passengers thought my frequency of visits to the bag (combined with several visits to the toilet) was suspicious.

[Northwestdc9]

Then put your bag under your seat, or your stuff under your seat. That's what I do and I've never had a problem.

[sanins192]

Surely the whole point is that it is safer to put things in the seatback pocket than have them rolling about on the floor.