Come on, Jim. You're north of 60 years old, for chrissakes. I'm not quite as old as you and the answer is "yes, I'd prefer the crew not be so irrational as to fear the lost electronic devices."
Are you seriously afraid of a lost (now found) blackberry or other electronic device? Would you be more afraid of the device if you located an ownerless device in flight or on a turn while you tidied up the cabin? I realize that the airplane is supposed to be swept prior to boarding, but I've found lost devices several times in the past five years, and not once was it cause for diversion.
Back to my first paragraph - if you were a typical 20 year old girl instead of an old man, devoid of the wisdom gained over the course of those years, then irrational fear of someone's blackberry (in the sterile area, no less) would be slightly more understandable.
My English teachers from high school could name the logical fallacy you commited in your second paragraph. It's been too many years for me to remember its label.
The lost blackberry was not a note clearly threatening a bomb on that flight. In today's paranoid airline world, people in urgent need of mental health counseling might assume it is, but that's not rational. Lewis Carroll's got nothin' on the paranoid airline world of today.
If anything, it was like the note found a couple years ago on the UAL transpacific flight that, IIRC, said only "BoB." Which some lunatics translated to "Bomb on Board." Found electronic devices are even less threatening than that note.
I know you're a member of the APFA, but the members of the APA (like the United FAs) might be well served to heed the advice mentioned on the home page of the AFA - and seek EAP counseling if they are overcome by their own overactive imaginations.
Still waiting for the adults to retake the reigns.
