Seeking Air Phone Info Options

[valis]

It has been suggested that phone calls made from 9/11 flights were made through the Verizon AirFone system. I was wondering if anyone here could elaborate on the temporal and physical restraints for this system - and this hypothesis.

I am wondering about the registration process for both new AirFone users - how long does it take to sign up? and current users - How long would it take to swipe a credit card, log in, - and dial? - And does the AirFone system have a directory of sorts - or did all the passengers know all the numbers they were dialing off of the tops of their heads?

Thanks in advance.

cheers

[albertchampion]

perhaps someone can tell us how airphones were arranged on 93?

i ask this question because i have noticed that airphone placements may differ from airline to airline, from aircraft to aircraft.

for instance, on some aircraft there were two airphones. one placed near the front galley. and one by the rear bathrooms. with that arrangement, anyone using the airphone had to stand in the aisle.

to the best of my recollection continental provided an airphone for each seat only in the first class compartment.

in my limited experience, it is my recollection that to activate an airphone, even for a call to customer assistance, required the swiping of a credit card. and also to the best of my recollection, out of 100 attempted airphone calls, i think only 2 ever resulted in a connection. and trying to reach customer assistance was never successful.

i also care to make this comment...conducting a conversation over them was next to impossible. difficult to hear over the ambient noise. and the party on the other end was having such a tough time hearing the passenger that shouting so as to be heard was the norm. and was in first class, in front of the engines. i can't imagine what it would have been like closer to the higher levels of engine noise.

in years of flying, i never observed many passengers using the airphones on continental. perhaps that was because road warriors regarded them as sublimely unreliable.

then there is this final thought. all airphones on an aircraft could be disabled with the flick of a single switch. one would think that a band so well trained to fly a commercial airliner on their first attempt would have known to disable the airphones.

so it goes.