Britain's CAA Considers Laptop Ban on Commercial Aircraft

hayb writes "An article in Britain's The Register claims that NASA and United Airlines have conducted tests on various aircraft and have found that ultra-wideband (UWB) devices "knocked out" collision-avoidance systems and impaired instrument landing systems. It states that the blanket ban on all devices in necessary because flight crews do not have the knowledge to differentiate between standard notebooks and ones with UWB devices."

Comments

So in other words...

[seldolivaw]

If I want to cause panic on a commercial aircraft, I no longer need to bring a bomb?

"Stand back! I have a bluetooth device!"

Are they making that much money on the headphones?

[ellem]

I mean, really, what this is really about is the airlines losing the 5-10 bucks they charge for those headphones so you can watch those sorry ass movies on crappy VHS.

What they really want to ban is DVD players!

Fly naked

[jukal]

Actually, about everything you carry or wear might pose a risk to the plane. Imagine the electric shocks you can generate by wearing cheap nylon clothes and trying to find a good position in the lousy seat for 12 hours. The solution is simple: fly naked. Business classers could have a turkish sauna.

This method could be first field-tested by a volunteer group of female flight stewards.

Yesterday an 80 yo man was fined

[gelfling]

For shrugging off a command to open up and take everyting out of his wallet. He did it but his verbal response was "Yeah you got me I keep a rifle in there."

It was on MSNBC I think. Coupled with airlines now charging up to $80 per bag to check the bag if it's over an arbitrary size and basically what you have is an industry that is committed to committing suicide. At this rate there will be 1 or 2 Long Distance Airlines that only carry passengers overseas or long distances from coast to coast or internationally outside of western Europe. And everyone else will do anything but fly, which will costs thousands of dollars anyway.

It will be a return to the 1930's except we don't have trains in the US anymore so everyone will drive in Federally mandated 8 MPG land arks - one to an SUV by law. Once in a great while we'll look up and see a jet and it will seem as strange as seeing a hot air balloon or the Concorde today.

Re:Stability And Security

[p3d0]

But this transmitter is inside a faraday cage...

Right, and the airplane's transmitters are outside the cage. (They must be, or they wouldn't work, right?) Thus, the plane's transmitters should theoretically be shielded from the passengers' interference.

I would be willing to bet a beer that if you placed the sun in the same position, the plane would crash.

I'll take that bet. I think the plane wouldn't survive long enough to crash.