Salon :: Tech & Business

Ask the pilot: Not buying it when the pilot tells you weather is holding up your flight? iPhone to the rescue!

If you've been watching TV at all, you're by now familiar with Apple's <a href="http://dir.salon.com/topics/iphone/">iPhone</a> blitz. You know the campaign I'm talking about. Each ad stars this or that insufferably regular Joe who proceeds to share some touchy-feely tale of how his iPhone all but saved the nation from calamity. As a rule, I don't like talking about <a href="http://dir.salon.com/topics/tv/">television,</a> especially commercials, but I'm obliged to address the <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sRO7BuGYcvs">iPhone spot featuring the pilot.</a> <P>It goes like this: An airline pilot tells us about the time he was working a flight from Chicago to Newark, N.J. Before departure, he was notified by controllers of a three-hour weather delay. Suspicious, he whipped out his iPhone and browsed over to Weather.com ("with our engines shut down," he carefully notes, avoiding any conflict with the rules). Noticing that the troublesome rain showers had already moved through, he contacted his dispatcher. The dispatcher "took another look" at conditions, and 30 minutes later the flight was cleared to go. IPhone to the rescue. <p>...</p><img src="http://feeds.salon.com/~r/salon/tech/~4/185546270" height="1" width="1"/>

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