Eighteen college students and their co-passengers have staged a sensational Harlem Shake dance on a commercial flight in the US. But the aviation authorities are not impressed.
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said it is looking into a video, titled "Harlem Shake Frontier Flight 157," that shows Colorado College's ultimate Frisbee team doing the meme with their fellow passengers as the plane from Colorado Springs to San Diego flew over the Rocky Mountains.
The FAA is looking into a 31-second video taken on a February 15 Frontier Airliners flight, CNN reported.
The students were on their way to an ultimate Frisbee tournament in San Diego.
Airline pilots, flight attendants and others say the fad presents serious safety and security problems.
"It's ridiculous," said Jim Tilmon, a retired 29-year airline pilot. "A commercial airplane in flight ... Is not a dance hall, it's not an entertainment stage, it's not any of those things."
A Harlem shake dance could also be used by terrorists to divert a crew's attention, an expert said.
"I think a federal air marshal might find that a bit confusing," Steve Wallace, former director of the FAA's Office of Accident Investigation.
The Harlem Shake is an Internet meme in the form of a video of various groups of people performing a comedy sketch accompanied by a short excerpt from the song "Harlem Shake" by US artist Baauer.
The students say they had the approval of the flight crew, who let them use the plane's public address system to tell other passengers about their intentions.
"We wanted to make sure that we followed every regulation and that nothing went wrong, and that it was OK with (the airplane crew)," said team member Matt Zelin.
"We just figured being on a plane, you know, you need to make sure everything is safe, and we just talked to flight attendants and they were excited."
After the plane landed, they posted the video online, and it went viral.
The seat belt sign was off during the videotaping, which took less than a minute, team members said.
"The video is a hand-held camera, so it's shaking and looking a lot worse than it is," said teammate Gavin Nachbar. "So we never felt unsafe the whole time, and we hope the FAA sees it the same way, and we assume that they will."
Frontier Airlines said it could not comment because of the FAA investigation, but said "all safety measures were followed and the seat belt sign was off.
