Pilot Admits False "Weather" delay in IPhone Commercial
Tony in Maine
it. A pilot (airline not mentioned) flying out of Chicago said that
he was sitting on the runway with a full plane and his flight was told
they had a 3 hour "weather" delay. The pilot told the story of how he
used his I-Phone to check the satelite weather photos and saw that the
showers had all passed the airport. He called to the tower and told
them what he found on his I-Phone, and that the weather looked fine to
him for departure. He said the tower checked out his report, called
him back, and cleared him for takeoff. Wow, very impressive, that I-
Phone. Weather excuses are largely bogus, just like I always
thought.
Here is a video of the commercial in question: http://www.apple.com/iphone/ads/ad13/
Parvaz
You are right it is an effective add. The commercial
pilot gives the product, in this case I-phone & Apple, the "expert in
the field" endorsement and credibility. The commercial also plays to
our desire to be a "hero" and to be given credit for "saving the day"
that resides in many of us. After all who doesn't want to look good-
we all do. The add also resonates deeply with the traveling public
that wants a quick "fix" to the never ending list of excuses why their
flights are being delayed. Gosh if I had this phone I could show
"them" (incompetent airlines & their miserable employees) how screwed
up "they" are and I would have the "proof" that all this vague
"weather" stuff they are telling us is garbage.
Beyond a doubt we, those of us with a few dollars to spend, have a
vast array of tools on hand that earlier generations couldn't
envision. The ability to use a phone and access real time satellite
weather data and up to the second airport conditions were simply not
available to us just a short time ago. This new era, internet
enabled, is still in its infancy.
I am always hesitant to endorse anything seen on television.
Television by its nature, especially commercials, is selective in
content and designed to change opinion. Exhaustive detailed
inspection, comprehensive analysis of all the relevant factors and an
unyielding commitment to "Truth" is not part of the equation.
The story line of the commercial is plausible. Weather observation
data is generated by thousands of separate sites hourly. This data is
collected and then made available around the beginning of every hour.
Based on that weather data flights may be prohibited from departing.
There are many reasons why a flight can't land due to weather. Let's
just deal with fog. It's possible that at the 08:53 AM observation
the visibility at the airport was less than an eighth of a mile. That
is not good enough for many flights. The next scheduled observation
isn't until an hour later (major changes in weather will generate a
new weather observation). So until the destination weather improves
to at least the minimum required visibility to land the flight will be
prohibited from departing.
Now let's say our hero checks his I-Phone 30 minutes later and finds
out that sure enough the fog bank has moved away. And the destination
airport now has enough visibility to land. If that data, acquired via
the I-Phone, is then verified to be true then the flight could in fact
depart.
The improved visibility should trigger another weather observation
and that information would be disseminated by the national weather
system but it would be slower. It's a believable story and makes a
trendy commercial. But remember it is a commercial. As such it is
designed to make you want to purchase the product - nothing more. I
wouldn't make the mistake of believing that "weather excuses are
largely bogus" because Apple incorporated spend a pile of money and
made an effective commercial.