Electronics In Flight — Danger Or Distraction?

Posted by Soulskill on Friday January 21, 2011 @01:10AM from the ways-to-get-tackled-by-stewardesses dept.

another similar writes "IEEE Spectrum has a blog post revisiting the debate on whether electronic devices pose a risk to flight avionics spurred by a NY Post article about Arianna Huffington's refusal to power down her Blackberry during takeoff. The post points out the EU's removal of their own ban on cell phone use in 2007 and the likelihood of significant non-compliance daily in the US — and curiously, planes haven't been falling from the sky at a similar rate. While the potential exists for there to be a problem, it would appear the risk is low. Ever bent the rules? Is an app for landing commercial jets somewhere in our future?"

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Re:I would be very concerned by lemnik · 2011-01-21 01:29 · Score: -1, Troll

Actually with certain avionics systems, the danger is quite real. The wrong frequency signal at the wrong time can cause an almost complete restart of many of the aircrafts systems. This is part of the reason why the in-flight entertainment systems have to be purpose built and wired. On the other hand, most of the time it's a bit of extra noise over the radio.