[LawSchoolStudent]

I appreciate the responses, you two seem to know what you are talking about, but I feel there are still things that need to be straightened out.

The conversation between my friend and the flight attendant lasted about two minutes, in these two minutes, the passengers in the back interjected. It was none of their business. More, all the devices were turned off after this point--that is not to say the passengers sitting behind my friends stopped. No, they continued to curse and scream. Regardless, the flight continued, it did take off, my friends were detained once they reached their destination. The belligerent passengers in the back on the other hand, got to walk away freely.

I suppose every passenger should have an FAA rulebook before boarding the plane, because apparently, talking to the stewardess (and an awfully rude one at that) for two minutes is unacceptable and can result into you being detained by the TSA.

As for the passengers, dying relatives, business meetings, all of these things are warranted, but why would you jump to the assumption that such was the case for the belligerent passengers? There were only two passengers who acted out, and they sat directly behind my friends. The flight was out of Vegas, and although the possibility of them having dying relatives is possible, it is unlikely. Like my friends, they were college-aged and were probably in Vegas to have fun before school starts again, or just to have fun for the summer.

Can you explain to me why my friends were detained for asking a question, and why the belligerent passengers, who were rightly told to mind their own business, were allowed to walk away freely after making threats and shouting-out profanities?

In either case, thank you for your responses. It did not occur to me that airplane mode was not allowed upon take-off--I personally just flew to and back from Europe and had my phone on airplane mode for the entire duration of both flights. Not to mention, I flew on a pretty cheaply priced ticket from Air Berlin in economy class. The service was not great, but I did not get detained.