Airline pilots have a compli-cated job. In addition to needing the prerequisite

aviation ability, they are called upon at various times to play the role of customer service representative, safety officer, weather forecaster and camp counselor at 35,000 feet. They also have to be sports reporters.

Anyone who has flown on a Sunday during football season has

had the experience of an airline pilot providing updates of NFL scores, particularly for teams from the plane’s arrival and departure cities. On Saturdays during the fall, the same thing happens, to a lesser degree, with scores from teams in college football’s top 25. Over the years, I have heard these six-mile-high sports anchors announce the results of golf tournaments, NCAA basketball, MLB, NBA and NHL games and Olympic competition. I once took a cross-country flight that passed over St. Louis during a World Series game. As the passengers in the window seats looked down at the lights of Busch Stadium, the pilot provided play-by-play of the action. It was a much more detailed description than anything I have ever heard while flying over the Grand Canyon. But perhaps the most notorious and dramatic sports-related news that I learned from a pilot—and certainly the one that drew the most audible passenger reaction—was the announcement of the verdict in the O.J. Simpson murder case.

Allow me to ease any concerns that these sports updates were relayed to pilots by air traffic controllers. They weren’t and aren’t. In the old days, it would be through voice communication with the airline office. In the ’80s, the scores began to come through ACARS—a system that allows for electronic messages.

The provocative and innovative Richard Branson has said that flying should be a communal experience and that there should be the opportunity for more interaction among passengers. To promote this idea, he has installed a bar in the most exclusive cabin of his Virgin Atlantic flights. But it may not be necessary to purchase a five- figure airline ticket to experience that. Sports can do it.

When pilots report sports scores, they touch a nerve in many passengers. A Sunday flight between Seattle and San Francisco on a day when the Seahawks and 49ers are playing would be heavily populated with passengers keenly inter-

ested in how the game is progressing. Until recent years, the only way to get that information in-flight was from the pilot. So the pilot was performing a valuable town-crier-type ser-vice to the airborne community, of which he was temporary chief. These announcements would allow passengers to emote together, almost as if they were in a sports bar. In-flight Internet is now available at a price on many planes, and I certainly use it to get sports updates. I’m often asked by seatmates catching a peek at my computer screen to check a particular score (which I am always happy to do).

But the technology that may really change the dynamic is in-flight live television. Imagine 20 or so passengers who have all paid the $8.99 fee (about three 0’s less than the cost of a seat in Sir Richard’s in-flight bar) to watch TV on their seat-

backs on a long-haul domestic flight. Now imag-ine each of those passen-gers all watching the same major sporting event in which even the most casual sports fan has some degree of interest. Well, it hap-pened in June when, some-where over Ohio, 20 seatback-TV-viewing pas-

sengers on a transcontinental flight could not control their individual exaltations when the Unites States scored what turned out to be the game-winning goal against Ghana in the first round of the World Cup. Their enthusiasm was infec-tious, and even non-viewing passengers joined the excite-ment. And so there you have it: the flying sports bar in coach!

In my sports-infected mind, this is a positive develop-ment. Will we in the future compartmentalize planes so that you can choose to sit in the sports-viewing section or a less social section? Will the old “smoking vs. non-smoking” choice become “cheering or non-cheering?” I do know this: I would far prefer the cheering section of a plane over a sec-tion that allows cellphone conversations. I eagerly await the airline that adopts the “sports anchor desk in the cockpit, sports bar in the cabin” motto. And as long as I don’t hear the words, “I’m Terry Bradshaw, and I’ll be your captain today,” sign me up for the frequent flier program.

i would far prefer

the cheering section

of a plane over a

section that

allows cellphone

conversations.

The Sports Bar Takes FlightAirline passengers now have even more opportunities

to keep up with the game while they’re in the air

BoB Latham

winners and losers

Bob Latham is a partner at the law firm Jackson Walker, L.L.P., and an International Rugby Board member. A compilation of his best columns titled “Winners & Losers: Rants, Riffs and Reflections on the World of Sports,” is available in the Media Zone at SportsTravelMagazine.com.

sportstravelMagazine.com 49september 2014 |

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