It's not waterboarding and it's not the rack. But for many airline passengers, it's close.
The idea of turning an airplane into a flying phone booth with hundreds of passengers prattling away on cell phones is enough to send any frequent flier running for the cabin door.
"That would be painful," said Keith Gusich, a frequent business traveler from Overland Park. "If you have to trap 100 people on a plane and listen to someone banter back and forth for an hour or two, that would be just downright miserable."
Phone etiquette — or the lack thereof — has some members of Congress so outraged that they are pushing a bill that would ensure that cell phones do not become the latest addition to the pantheon of pain.
The bill — called the Halting Airplane Noise to Give Us Peace Act, or HANG UP for short — would make permanent the current ban on cell phone use during commercial flights.
The move comes as Europe is relaxing its restrictions on in-flight cell phone use and as some airlines are planning to offer wireless Internet to passengers.
"A plane full of people talking on their cell phones seems like madness to me," said U.S. Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, a Missouri Democrat.
Read the complete story at kansascity.com.