Photo: Matej Kastelic/Shutterstock

This Is Why You Don't Play Loud Music on a Plane

Travel
by Matt Hershberger Mar 14, 2016

AS A RULE, IF YOU ARE LISTENING to music — whether it’s on a portable speaker, on your phone, or even on your headphones — you should ask yourself, “Is this loud enough that other people who may not want to hear this can hear this?” And if the answer’s yes, maybe turn the speaker down.

This is not what happened on a SpiritAir flight from Baltimore to LA last week. As the flight landed in LA, two passengers who “appeared to be intoxicated” according to a SpiritAir official, pulled out a portable speaker and started playing loud music.

“Several other customers asked them if they could turn down their music,” SpiritAir said, “The first two ladies refused to do so and stated ‘What are you going to do?’

“Then to provoke the other customers, they were holding their speaker in the air taunting the customers who had asked to have the music turned down. This prompted the second group of customers to approach the first group and a fight broke out.” The fight involved five women, and when the plane reached the gate, FBI and airport police came on to intervene, but no charges ended up being filed. Other passengers caught video of the fight on their smartphones.

The moral of the story? Just be cool to the other people around you. Don’t be the worst. Turn down your music. And if someone around you won’t turn down their music, maybe don’t take the bait.

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