Flight passengers are being threatened with a potential ‘punishment’ after airlines revealed they are cracking down on ‘barebeating’.
The act of ‘barebeating’ on a plane is considered a social faux pas but now it could face repercussions.
This comes after the Indian Minister of State of Civil Aviation, Murlidhar Mohol, announced that unruly passengers could be punished for such behavior.
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The rules will be enforced in particular to stop people from ‘barebeating’ and no… it isn’t what you think.
The act of ‘barebeating’ is when someone plays music without any headphones to restrict the noise to just themselves, meaning that everyone around them is forced to listen to it as well.
Indian aviation rules state that headphones are mandatory on flights, which means if you want to listen to anything with noise, you have to keep it to yourself.
Under current Indian laws, which might be taken more seriously from now on, passengers can be removed, restrained and face tough punishments ranging from fines to flight bans and even time behind bars if they don’t comply.
They say you are not allowed to indulge in any behavior that ‘interferes with the performance of duties of crew members, jeopardizes the safety of the aircraft, persons or property on board, affects good order and discipline, or causes discomfort to other passengers and crew members’.
That includes playing music without headphones, in case you were wondering, and the Indian minister said he would ‘act on complaints’ about people not wearing headphones on board flights.
‘Barebeating’ is one of the least popular activities someone can do on a form of public transport as nothing quite unites a bunch of strangers crammed into the same place like some thoughtless wazzock deciding everyone else wants to listen to whatever they're watching.
Air travel can be a rather boring experience, depending on how long it takes you to reach your destination so finding ways to entertain yourself is understandable, but inflicting that upon everyone else is not on.
Barebeating vs rawdogging
The polar opposite of the people who go ‘barebeating’ are those who try ‘rawdogging’ flights, which is where passengers take their seats and just sit there waiting to arrive at their destination.
Again, this isn’t what it sounds like and instead involves you getting on the plane without any hand luggage so you can have your passport, wallet, phone, charger and maybe a bottle of water and that’s it.
It’ll save some money, but try not to get bored.