Washington – Millions of Americans who got on a plane over the Thanksgiving holiday heard the admonition: “Please power down your electronic devices for takeoff.”
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And absolutely everyone obeyed. I know they did because no planes fell from the sky. No planes had to make an emergency landing because the avionics went haywire. No planes headed for Miami ended up in Anchorage. We were all made safe because we all turned off all our Kindles, iPads, iPhones, BlackBerrys and laptops, just as the Federal Aviation Administration told us to. Realistically speaking, I’m going to bet that a handful of people on each flight could not be bothered, or forgot to comply.
According to the F.A.A., 712 million passengers flew within the United States in 2010. Let’s assume that just 1 percent of those passengers – about two people per Boeing 737, a conservative number – left a cellphone, e-reader or laptop turned on during takeoff or landing. That would mean seven million people on 11 million flights endangered the lives of their fellow passengers.
Yet, in 2010, no crashes were attributed to people using technology on a plane. None were in 2009. Or 2008, 2007 and so on. You get the point.
Surely if electronic gadgets could bring down an airplane, you can be sure that the Department of Homeland Security and the Transportation Security Administration, which has a consuming fear of 3.5 ounces of hand lotion and gel shoe inserts, wouldn’t allow passengers to board a plane with an iPad or Kindle, for fear that they would be used by terrorists.
New technologies are often greeted with fear and that is certainly true of a disruptive technology like cellphones. Yet rules that are decades old persist without evidence to support the idea that someone reading an e-book or playing a video game during takeoff or landing is jeopardizing safety.
Nevertheless, Les Dorr, a spokesman for the F.A.A., said the agency would rather err on the side of caution when it comes to digital devices on planes.
He cited a 2006 study by the Radio Technical Commission for Aeronautics, a nonprofit group that tests and reports on technical travel and communications issues. The group was asked by the F.A.A. to test the effects of cellphones, Wi-Fi and portable electronic devices on planes.
Its finding? “Insufficient information to support changing the policies,” Mr. Dorr said. “There was no evidence saying these devices can’t interfere with a plane, and there was no evidence saying that they can.” I’m not arguing that passengers should be allowed to make phone calls while the plane zooms up into the sky. But, why can’t I read my Kindle or iPad during takeoff and landing? E-readers and cellphones can be easily put into “Airplane Mode” which disables the device’s radio signals.
The government might be causing more unnecessary interference on planes by asking people to shut their devices down for take-off and landing and then giving them permission to restart all at the same time. According to electrical engineers, when the electronic device starts, electric current passes through every part of the gadget, including GPS, Wi-Fi, cellular radio and microprocessor.
It’s the equivalent of waking someone up with a dozen people yelling into bullhorns.
As more and more people transition from paper products to digital ones, maybe it’s time to change these rules.
Michael Altschul, senior vice president and legal counsel for CTIA, the wireless industry association, said a study that it conducted more than a decade ago found no interference from mobile devices.
“The fact is, the radio frequencies that are assigned for aviation use are separate from commercial use,” Mr. Altschul said. “Plus, the wiring and instruments for aircraft are shielded to protect them from interference from commercial wireless devices.”
Mr. Dorr reluctantly agreed. “There have never been any reported accidents from these kinds of devices on planes,” he said.
Many times my phone sits in my pocket where it was to begin with, I don’t go out of my way to leave it on but I have realized after flights many times it was on the whole time and nothing happened. So there you go.
The old 4 watt analog cell phones could and did interfere with some avionics, hence the ban, but the tests that I know of on current 150mw digital cell phones showed no detectable interference with flight instruments even when held directly on the device itself. The same goes for hospital equipment. modern cell phones don’t interfere with hospital monitors and equipment either.
It is utter nonsense that the Airlines and FAA makes these rules. There is no evidence to support any problems from it. One problem is that there is no current phone signal so practically speaking the phones don’t work. It is a good thing though as many people are rude and don’t care about their fellow passengers as evidenced on busses and trains above ground. It would be terrible to be locked in a flight for several hours with your seat mate yakking away. There definitely would be more passengers who will become unruly, should this option become available in the future.
I was told by a flight attendant that it has nothing to do do with inference. Just during take off and landing the passengers fullest attention is needed in case of emergency
Last time I flew – because I feel the same way this writer does – I put my phone in airplane mode and continued listening to my podcast.
According to the airline captain who has a weekly column in Useless A Today, there really is no proof to electronic gadgets messing up navigation so the real reason its done is to have people focused on the flight in case ch’v there is an emergency.
nebach. are we so addicted to or devices that we can’t even turn them off for a flight?????? i actually enjoy the time on the plane where i must turn off my phone and i cannot call or be in touch with anybody. i remember the days where if u couldn’t get ahold of someone you just tried back a different time and nobody got nervous thst chas ve’sholam something is wrong. now when you can’t get a hold of someone you get upset and or nervous and must track him down.
What this author does not realize is that some of these devices (notably cell phones), interfere with the instructions of the flight crew. I was on a flight when the flight crew was making some important announcements, at the beginning of the flight. A young lady in front of me was speaking so loudly on her cell phone (after she had been admonished to turn it off), that I couldn’t hear what the Captain was saying. I had to shush her; afterwards, she began glaring at me. This is typical of the unpleasant atmosphere, which prevails on commercial aircraft, today.
There is no evidence that shirts and pants are interfering with aviation signals but there is no evidence that it is not interfering either, let’s ban it during take off and landing, what a bunch of clowns
they used to ban cellphones from hospitals as well. now every doctor/nurse walks around with a blackberry or iphone and hospital phones (at a cost to the patient) are a thing of the past
This all makes perfect sense! If everyone remembers, on 9/11 everyone was calling their loved ones from the plane. “Lets Roll”, and a minute later the plane crashes! A flight attendant calls to say the plane was hijacked, and a minute later its in a building! Maybe it was not George Bush who was responsible for 9/11.