Expert: D. Norkus - 3/12/2007

Question
I am an author who has a bit of a dilemma.  A private investigator is on an airplane (major airline) and doesn't have a cell phone.  Police are working with him on a case and need to speak with him while he is in transit.  How would this be handled on an actual flight.  He needs to leave his seat to take the call.  I had him taking a phone call but my editor didn't like it.  I had him called to the pilot who received a message over the radio and she didn't like that either.  Is there any other way this can be done?

Answer
Jeff

There are frequencies that could be used in flight for conversation. There are several frequencies used by air to air planes talking to each other but such freqs could also be used by a ground based station with ARINC (Aeronautical Radio- http://www.arinc.com/) to communicate. Airlines each have designated company frequencies in each city for ground to plane contact. These frequencies are sometimes how phone calls are made to the aircraft via a patch in from the ground station. If he were permitted to enter the cockpit (maybe a storyline problem post 9/11?), then he could easily talk with police on the ground who were communicating via the aircrafts radios. However, these frequencies can be heard by anyone within range with an aircraft radio tuned to that frequency. Here's a list- http://www.jneuhaus.com/fccindex/aviation.html

Another way to communicate is via the Aircraft Communication Addressing and Reporting System/ACARS system. It has a mini printer with a touch screen pad used to transmit weather and other flight related data. (See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ACARS ) Typed messages can also be sent and received by the crew. This method would generate paper messages for your investigator but they could be delivered to his seat. Unless of course he went up to the galley receive them and was using the flight phone to talk with the pilots locked behind the cockpit door. Not sure how him leaving his seat will work with this though.

Hope this can give you some ideas.

Dottie