Passenger Gets Huffy With Huffington For Using Her Blackberry While Plane Is Taking Off

Yesterday it was reported that Arianna Huffington got into a confrontation with a passenger that was irate that she would not turn off her blackberry while the plane was in the process of taking off. Even going so far as to continue using it while the plane was just getting in the air!

“She was putting the use of her BlackBerry ahead of the safety of the entire plane. It was purely her own self-interest she was concerned with,” said Ellis Belodoff, 53.

The flap arose late Saturday night when Huffington — a noted author and columnist, who owns the online Huffington Post — was headed to LaGuardia from Dulles Airport in Washington, D.C. and defied Captain Charles Beals’ standard pre-flight instructions that all passengers turn off their cell phones, Belodoff noted.

…Belodoff said when his attempts to notify the flight attendant grew fruitless, he yelled out in frustration.

“So, I yell to him, ‘She’s on her BlackBerry!’¤” he recounted.

When the plane takes off “she’s still on it and I’m ringing my buzzer [to notify the flight attendant]. And finally, I said, ‘What is wrong with you?’ And I’m getting louder and louder.”

Belodoff said that a flight attendant eventually persuaded Huffington to turn off the device and place it in her pocketbook, which was in an overhead bin, but she had been using it for at least 10 minutes after the plane was airborne.

Angry about what happened, he confronted the flight attendant about his alleged refusal to confront Huffington.

“I told him, ‘There’s probably a reason why they want you to turn it off on take off and upon landing,’ ” he said.

“He says, ‘We’ll take care of it when we land.’

“I told him, ‘You didn’t even reprimand her!’

“’He tells me, ‘Calm down, sir!’ I told him I was calm. If I wasn’t calm, I would have ripped it out of her hand!’ “

She better slow her roll before somebody wild out on her. Let it be known, we’re not going down in flames just because you want to send one last smiley face on your BBM!

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