The moral maze: You be the judge

JR8 · Post by **JR8** » Wed, 06 Jun 2012 4:43 am

On a flight a week or so ago, from Singapore to Indonesia. On a major SGn airline.

A passenger adjacent to me dropped his iPhone on the floor during take-off and decided to wait until later to retrieve it. Meanwhile another passenger in the row ahead, spotting the empty row behind us, moved there, and at the same time picked up the phone, and then returned to his seat.

A while later my neighbour tried to find his phone, and went through all his and his girlfriends belongings but could not find it. Somehow they put 2+2 together and with the intervention of air-crew the guy in front owned up to having picked it up, and he gave it back to them.

What do you imagine happened next?

aster · Post by **aster** » Wed, 06 Jun 2012 5:31 am

Something silly like the guy who lost the phone getting reamed for not turning it off?

Post by **x9200** » Wed, 06 Jun 2012 7:52 am

If it was on the way to Singapore I guess the guy who picked up the phone could be arrested (after landing) but as you emphasized on the line then I can only think about something like what Aster mentioned or the same for the guy for trying to change his seat.

kindred · Post by **kindred** » Wed, 06 Jun 2012 7:53 am

I'll go for an extreme - they landed and he was arrested for theft?

the lynx · Post by **the lynx** » Wed, 06 Jun 2012 8:36 am

I personally hope that he gets arrested.

carteki · Post by **carteki** » Wed, 06 Jun 2012 10:03 am

JR8 wrote:What do you imagine happened next?

Nothing? Not sure I see where the moral maze comes in.

Raises an interesting question - even though the flight was to Indo, could he be charged in Singapore since it was a SG carrier. If anyone actually listens to the safety briefing (just returned from a 22k trip so know it quite well!) they talk about how smoking on the flight is illegal under the laws of the flag country, not the destination country.

BillyB · Post by **BillyB** » Wed, 06 Jun 2012 10:09 am

JR8 wrote:On a flight a week or so ago, from Singapore to Indonesia. On a major SGn airline.

A passenger adjacent to me dropped his iPhone on the floor during take-off and decided to wait until later to retrieve it. Meanwhile another passenger in the row ahead, spotting the empty row behind us, moved there, and at the same time picked up the phone, and then returned to his seat.

A while later my neighbour tried to find his phone, and went through all his and his girlfriends belongings but could not find it. Somehow they put 2+2 together and with the intervention of air-crew the guy in front owned up to having picked it up, and he gave it back to them.

What do you imagine happened next?

He's getting his backdoor widened in Changi?

Post by **nakatago** » Wed, 06 Jun 2012 10:13 am

JR8 wrote:What do you imagine happened next?

He was made to objectively moderate a debate which is the better OS (iOS vs Android) participated in by rabid fanboys on both sides and not listening to their frothing-at-the-mouth shouting and arguments was not an option. And then he was to make a convincing stand and convince the two groups that Symbian is better.

Post by **x9200** » Wed, 06 Jun 2012 10:19 am

carteki wrote:Raises an interesting question - even though the flight was to Indo, could he be charged in Singapore since it was a SG carrier.

AFAIK: yes if the aircraft was in the international space at the time the act was committed. If it was over Indo the Indo law is applicable.

Post by **nakatago** » Wed, 06 Jun 2012 10:39 am

x9200 wrote:
carteki wrote:Raises an interesting question - even though the flight was to Indo, could he be charged in Singapore since it was a SG carrier.
AFAIK: yes if the aircraft was in the international space at the time the act was committed. If it was over Indo the Indo law is applicable.

As SQ is Singapore's national carrier, SG laws do apply over international airspace. I think it may apply to other airspace as well (national carrier and all) but not so sure about each country's specifics.

Disclaimer: IANAL.

Post by **x9200** » Wed, 06 Jun 2012 11:24 am

I've just done some reading and it looks like a mess. There is a pretty fresh Beijging convention (2011) on the safety/crimes but it seems to be more into hijacking and such. A ruling law is the Tokyo Convention (1963).
This document is from May 2012 and includes some interesting examples (page 3, Jurisdiction)

http://www.icao.int/Meetings/LC-SC-MOT/ ... 20IATA.pdf

Mi Amigo · Post by **Mi Amigo** » Wed, 06 Jun 2012 12:41 pm

I'm guessing nothing happened, on the basis that the cabin crew didn't know how to properly react to the situation. Hence a moral dilemma for JR8, having witnessed what was basically attempted theft.

Either that or it went to the other end of the scale with an air marshall bundling the guy to the ground or something like that. But I don't recall seeing anything in the meeja about an incident like that.

zzm9980 · Post by **zzm9980** » Thu, 07 Jun 2012 12:11 pm

JR8 wrote: What do you imagine happened next?

If your neighbor was a local in SG, I'd imagine he got furiously angry and puffed up his chest about it, but sheepishly turned away and hid his face if the guy happened to glance back at him. Then took his photo and put it on Stomp.

JR8 · Post by **JR8** » Thu, 07 Jun 2012 4:05 pm

zzm9980 wrote:
JR8 wrote: If your neighbor was a local in SG, I'd imagine he got furiously angry and puffed up his chest about it, but sheepishly turned away and hid his face if the guy happened to glance back at him. Then took his photo and put it on Stomp.

Wa'up Z, you lost the login to your Angry Nick?

movingtospore · Post by **movingtospore** » Thu, 07 Jun 2012 4:43 pm

so what happened?

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