Alec Baldwin removed from American Airlines flight due to Words with Friends addiction

Alec Baldwin was removed from an American Airlines flight after refusing to turn off his iPad because of a particular intense game of Words with Friends. The flight which was bound for New York from LAX was idling at the gate when Baldwin apparently ignored request by cabin crew to turn his device off.

The "30 Rock" actor was playing a game called "Words with Friends" while the plane idled at a gate Tuesday, said Baldwin's spokesman, Matthew Hiltzik. "He loves `Words with Friends' so much that he was willing to leave a plane for it," said Hiltzik, who added that Baldwin boarded another American Airlines flight to New York.

After leaving the flight, Baldwin confirmed the incident via his twitter account, claiming that a flight attendant on America had reamed him out for playing Words with Friends while sat at the gate. He also carried on with more disparaging remarks aimed at American Airlines and its flight attendants. American Airlines declined to make any comment on the incident due to customer privacy.

Source: Associated Press





More Posts



← Previously

Flipboard comes to iPhone, brings Cover Stories

Next up →

Apple submits updated plans for new Cupertino campus

Reader comments



I guess he really feels as special as he thinks he is in those stupid Capital One commercials. He is such a shithead diva.

WOW!!!! What a DIVA. When the flight crew tells you to turn off your device, at least let the screen time out so it appears to be turned off. We usually get this sort of sense of entitlement nonsense from nonsense from the female actors.

U.S. air travel gets more ridiculous. Somehow aaaaaallll the planes in the rest of the world still function while people have their phones/pads/etc. on.

Europe is actually more strict. At least in the US, they let you turn your phone on after landing and while taxiing.

Screw him. He thinks he's special because he's a celebrity? Celebrities are people with different jobs, like royals, and deserve no better treatment.

just wondering but is there really an proof that a airplane equipment that will be affected from a celphone or tablet??

There was an episode about this on mythbusters a while back.
Cell phones disrupt airplane navigation: mythbusted. Modern planes are well-shielded enough to not be affected

Flight controls and communication devices use different frequencies than that of cell phones, ipads, etc. Your device does nothing to their communication equipment nor their flight controls.

I thought the issue was the liability related to a lithium battery in use having the slight potential to explode during an extreme change in elevation such as the take off and climb to cruising altitude or the decent for landing?

No, he wasn't tossed for his phone use - he was tossed for being a JERK when they gave the instruction to put away electronic devices... he's an arseportal.

Although I am of the soft opinion that Baldwin was wrong, I am somewhat torn. I've been on a flight, with earbuds in (I occasionally leave them in for convenience because they or their cushions end up any and everywhere) when an attendant asked me to turn my audio device off. I told her that it was off. She insisted. I offered to show her. She I insisted. I took off the earbuds and she was satisfied.
That was such a stupid exchange that I can't help but feel for Baldwin's side just a bit.

Good for him. Screw those idiots who think the world will end because your iDevice or other gadget will bring down a flight. If that was the case, "the terrorists" would use those instead of underwear bombs. lol
Wish more people will follow his lead and not take crap from these businesses. We support them, not the other way around. We should be the ones running their world, not the other way around. We should be the ones that tell them what to do. Flight crews and TSA... two idiots in a pod!

The point of keeping all electronic devices off for takeoff and landing is a safety measure. It is important that as many distractions are taken away from people so that, in case of an emergency, people are able to be alert and act quickly.
Also, for some reason, it seems like we are far enough past 9/11 for people to think they can just ignore flight crew instructions. As far as I am concerned, anyone who doesn't do exactly what the flight crew says deserves whatever they get.
...and this is coming from someone who takes commercial flights 50+ times per year....

the reason they ask is because they tell you that devices interfere with the planes systems. This is a complete lie. Mythbusters proved this. They tested cell phones and even did a test boosting the signal power WAY beyond anything possible by a cell phone... NOTHING happened. and really... you think that if there is an emergency, you wouldnt know? or ignore it? ok, fine, turn it off or put it down during take off... but sitting at the gate, thats insane. I have taken MANY flights myself and have never been told to turn off devices while at the gate. ONLY after the plane pulls away. GOOD FOR HIM

It is much safer to have everyone sitting there bored with no distractions when there is an emergency. You should be glad that people give safety more thought than you do.

It has nothing to do with distractions, if that was the case they would not let you sleep. I can't tell you how many times I have boarded a plane and immediately fell asleep only to wake up some time during the flight. I think I would be more alert to an emergency being distracted by playing on my iDevice then if I was sleeping.

Oh well if MYTHBUSTERS proved it... Bottom line, the airlines have rules. If ya can't follow 'em, then you shouldn't be allowed to fly. I commend them for not bending the rules for a (so called) celebrity.

Why? I guess you're just one of those who likes bending over and taking it from the flight crews and TSA, huh? Wimp... maybe if more Americans would stand up for their right to do shit, the government and big business wouldn't be crawling up all of our asses.

1) He was talking on his phone. He was asked five times to stop.
2) They weren't at the gate. They had to return to the gate.
3) Baldwin went ballistic screaming, pounding walls and galley counters.

See, now you go and put me in the position of deciding the lesser of two evils again. Alec Baldwin's Ego, or US Air Travel Policies. Damn you, TiPb!

If my flight was delayed by an adult playing childish games, I'd beat that person to death with their iPad.

Playing on your iPad is dangerous for flying so is listening to music. Passengers must be alert at all times for take off and departure. I guess that's why you see flight attendants waking people up who fall asleep before take off? #neveronceseenthathappen

I crashed a flight with my old 3GS once. I was updating Ping.FM with my manifesto when suddenly the plane shook and veered sharply out of control. Once it hit the ground, they took all of us wounded to the hospital. I then used the same device to destroy all life support systems in the hospital by sending a single text. I proceeded to walk outside, in front of all of the news station's microwave and satellite trucks, pointed the antenna-ish region of my phone towards their heads, called Domino's Pizza and beamed cancer into their brains.
Once my battery died, I was quickly overtaken by the authorities but ironically allowed to use one of their cellphones to make a call.
I am in awe of how much power the FAA, FCC and AMA allow me to tote without any kind of license, inspection or monitoring.

HIGH-larious. Like someone else said, you have a choice to fly or not. You know the rules prior to getting on the plane. If you don't like it, don't fly on that airline or don't fly at all.
Some states make it illegal to have tint on your car windows. We could argue day and night about whether that poses a safety risk. Doesn't matter - you want to drive in that state, get rid of the tint.
Casinos don't want you smoking or using a phone at their tables. It has not effect on their ability to deal or operate, but those are the rules. Don't like them? Go somewhere else.

I actually just tinted the windows on my latest car and I live in Illinois. I've been pulled over about it before with my old car. I don't recall any crazed outbursts or feelings of oppression.
Maybe that's why I didn't get a ticket? :)

While I don't always agree with the requests of the flight staff, a rule is a rule, and if they ask me to turn my device off, I do it. Over the summer I was on a flight and was reading a book on my Nook Color. A lady across the aisle from me was reading on a Kindle. I was asked to turn my device off, the other lady was not. I thought it was ridiculous, but I did it, because I was asked to. Just because you don't agree with a rule doesn't mean you have a reason to act like a child...

I fly corporate and I never have to turn off my device, even though the Part 91 regs say to do it. And the fact that a lot of Part 91 operators (non-charter or air carrier) are switching to the iPad as a chart viewer in the cockpit proves that iDevices don't interfere electronically. One of the biggest tests though, for electronics being approved for Part 135 (charter) and 12X (air carrier) operators, is the decompression test, of which the iPad passes flawlessly. Alaska Airlines is one of the first adopters of the iPad in the cockpit, and for all the qualification testing it had to pass to be there, you know it's safe. It really is a matter of objects flying around the cabin during take-off/landing.

wow... baldwin argued (had words) with the addiction of his friends?
oh! you meant due to his 'Words With Friends' addiction.
let's eat grandma!
let's eat, grandma!
punctuation matters.

Baldwin - what a deutschbag move. Just follow instructions and put the d@mn phone away. All this drama over a friggin' game. He should be whipped with a paper sack of his own crappy movies, as well as anyone defending these numbskull antics.

Oh, you mean like the accident where the idiot pilot locks himself into the restroom and can't get out. And then the flight attendant and/or captain gives a regular (foreign accept having at that) passanger the secret password to get into the cockpit to tell the co-pilot that the captain locked himself into the crapper? At which point that rookie panicks, calls in a terrorist threat and performs an emergency landing. Yep... I guess that's OK though, because it was the flight crew who pulled the bonehead move.
Give me a break. I say they let the public worry about our own safety for a change. Let us be in charge of securing our own lives. That way, this country won't continue to be filled by scared little girls who need police and lawyers to solve our every day disputes. With all due respect to everyone involved in 9/11 and to those who lost their lives, but if more of us had balls, none of that would have happened. We would have killed those hijackers before they even made a move. Instead we're so worried about "what might go wrong" or "what could legally happen against us" that we're too scared to act on what we know is right... OUR RIGHT TO DEFEND OURSELVES! Stand up for your rights as citizens you little girls!

Unfortunately, there aren't enough people out there in the world that have the drive to express their views in better ways. Imagine if no one took any flights for a couple of weeks... ya, NOBODY, I mean no one. Prices would fall more inline with what they need to be and respect would shift back to the public supporting these companies. If it fell off again, everyone could just repeat it. It's the same thing that people are asked to do as large groups throughout the world. One day of not buying gas... One hour of not using any electricity... the issue is that very few actually do it. That's why the people no longer have the power. Heck, now you can't even take a properly sized tube of lube on the plane for the youknowwhating they're going to give you while taking the flight. You're limited on that too... so they know it'll hurt when you run out. :p

The saddest part about some of these posts (beyond the fact that I read them all ;-) is the anger and outrage people have about the idea of being separated from their electronic gizmo. Hateful language, profanity and insults toward an airline for taking away your digital "best friend" for a few minutes... seriously? Defending Baldwin's absurdly self-centered behavior seems like an ideal litmus test for identifying the truly entitled among us. I am glad to see that, in this situation, somebody actually set some boundaries on Mr Baldwin's "Burger King" life. He made an agreement to follow their rules and then broke it. Then he had to deal with the consequences. Imagine how much simpler the world would be if everyone actually had to deal with the consequences of their misbehavior and broken promises...

I just got the words with friends on my iphone..I really downloaded it because I love this game..I get glued on it,I spent many hours on my phone because of this game..I use the ANAGRAMMER too just to give me some hints..

You can certainly see your expertise in the work you write. The sector hopes for even more passionate writers like you who aren't afraid to mention how they believe. Always follow your heart.

