United Airlines told a customer on one of their flights Thursday morning that she couldn't wear her Google Glass during the flight, saying it was a security concern.
Cecilia Abadie shared the following post to her Google+ account Thursday morning:
Androidandme also notes that Abadie had another incident with her Glass, as she was pulled over and ticketed for wearing them while driving. She took that case to court, and won, setting an important precedent for Glass users. The court ruled that driving with Glass is allowed as long as the driver isn't using the device — which of course is pretty much impossible to prove.
Cecilia didn't specify in her post what exact security risk United had cited, but she complied and ended up using her cell phone to snap a photo. In the comments on her post, another Glasshole user remarked that he had no issues while wearing his on Delta.
Some airlines don't like you to take pictures of the cabin while you're flying, for some reason. Of the hundreds of times I've flown, I've only been asked not to take photos once. I mean, it's not like there aren't thousands of photos already out on the internet of the inside of United's planes. Every smartphone out there comes equipped with a camera, and their use is allowed in all stages of flight now, here in the U.S.
One European flight school has recently shown that Glass can actually be a safe and beneficial tool to pilots while flying an aircraft. As Glass continues to become more mainstream, perhaps people will relax and realize that although it can look intimidating, there is really no greater harm from Glass than the common smartphone.
United also made news at their quarterly earnings announcement this morning, sharing that the airline had lost $609 Million during the first three months of 2014.
Top Image by Ted Eytan on Flickr, for Creative Commons commercial use.