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Britain's CAA Considers Laptop Ban on Commercial Aircraft

Posted by chrisd on from the your-watch-sir-you-have-to-check-that dept.

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."

2 of 377 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Muslim designed mobo's ??? by khuber · · Score: 0, Troll
    Al-Khawarizmi lived in Persia 1200 years ago.

    What has Iran done lately?

    -Kevin

  2. Re:Mod braindead by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

    Well, let's see, I actually fly for a living. What you said is nice, but in IMC, you need the instruments. If you can't see the ground, you're going to be in a world of shit without the glideslope. Loosing TCAS is a bad thing, but what if TCAS gives you an erroneous RA? That would really, really suck, now wouldn't it. Particularly if that RA vectored you into another aircraft. The fishfinder is a magic box, and you have to trust it when you're in the clouds. Oh, and I'll laugh at you when you spend an extra 3 hours flying over the ocean because RAIM failed due to UWB jamming. But, I'm just throwing around acronyms. (Yes, I'm a EE, practice electronic warfare for a living and am a pilot)