Yesterday Gawker reported that a glamorous woman who seemed to be Arianna Huffington was escorted off a plane after landing and questioned by police after she was spotted using her BlackBerry after the plane took off. The use of devices with phone or radio connections is not allowed on most airlines, as there is some evidence it may interfere with key instruments in the cockpit. According to a witness, a flight attendant asked the famously plugged-in Huffington to turn off her BlackBerry. She did not comply, and a nearby passenger became irate. “Hey lady! Don’t you speak English?” he reportedly yelled, getting out of his seat. “How come she gets to use her electronic devices but nobody else does?”
Once the flight landed, other passengers were asked to remain in their seats as Huffington and the angry man were escorted off first. They were later seen speaking to airport police.
In this morning’s paper, the Post confirms that it was Arianna on that Saturday night flight from Washington, D.C., to New York. A rep for the website mogul laughed the whole thing off, though: “There was a passenger who seemed upset. Arianna thought he didn’t like the snacks,” said Mario Ruiz. “Guess not. Maybe he was an iPhone fan. As you know, the battle between iPhone lovers and BlackBerry users can get pretty heated.”
Well, that at least seems like he’s laughing it off. (Those are supposed to be jokes, right?) To be fair, the idea that Arianna Huffington would follow rules — that were clearly only made for everybody else — is a little funny. But it’s not like she forced everyone else on the plane to wait for two hours to disembark, or started doing yoga in the aisles like some celebrity moms we could mention.
Getting ‘Huffy’ on jet [NYP]
Was Arianna Huffington Escorted Off a Flight by Police? [Gawker]
