Is the word “bomb” muted in in-flight movies?

Question

I was recently on a transatlantic flight and watched the movie Steve Jobs on the plane’s entertainment system. Every movie I tried, including that one, had a message right at the start saying the movie had been edited for content.

In one scene, the caracter of Steve Wozniak is fiddling with a watch and the character of Steve Jobs makes a joke it looks like he’s messing with a bomb. Those words were muted. The word “bomb” (and one or two words around it) were gone from the movie. I even rewinded to make sure, and the words were indeed gone.

Is there some weird law that forbids the use of the word in in-flight entertainment systems? It there is, it’d be particularly weird since you need to plug headphones to listen to the movie in the first place, so it’s unlikely you’d cause hysteria. In addition, the word was pronounced again later on in the movie but wasn’t muted then. It was less clear audibly, though, so it’s feasible it wouldn’t have been caught by the automated system (if any is used).

The airline was TAP, and the entertainment systems were individual per seat.

Answer 1

There doesn't seem to be any law of that sort, however there's some reports online, which indicate, that this is a common occurrence. See for instance this news report talking about Qantas.

More generally air crashes and the like seem to be avoided in in-flight programs. Although I once watched a documentary on a Singapore Airlines flight which went into great lengths about the dangers of counterfeit airline parts and their involvement in the Concorde crash.

Other than that, airlines also seem to edit out content which they deem potentially offensive. To quote from an article from road warrior voices:

For example, nudity and profanity in a film might be okay on a flight to Europe, whereas more discretion is practiced in the Middle East where nudity is not tolerated. In some Middle Eastern countries violence is totally acceptable, but scenes that involve pork products or pigs in any way, shape, or form hit the editorial chopping block because they might offend Muslim passengers, Toh said.