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Alaska Airlines Jettisons Paper Manuals For iPads
fullymodo writes "Alaska Airlines has become the first major US airline to hop on board the paperless bandwagon. While it's not quite ready to ditch paper navigation charts just yet (though that is under consideration), the airline has announced that it will be replacing its traditional flight manuals with iPads, which will be loaded up with the GoodReader app and PDFs of 41 different manuals and other materials.' So explain why I have to shut off my non-wi-fi-capable ebook reader during take-off and landing?"
I don't buy it. There's very little that a passenger can do in the event of a crash other than ensure they've got their seatbelt fastened and head down. There's not a whole lot they can say that will help. In the event that they do say something, the general hysteria in the cabin will inform those who were reading an e-reader. If it were about having your attention, they wouldn't allow passengers to sleep during take off and landing. I can assure you that people are far more attentive while using an e-reader than they are while asleep. And I can also assure you that there's almost zero difference between the attention levels of someone reading an e-reader and someone reading a dead-tree edition, which is not only allowed but encouraged by all the reading material they provide you (newspapers, SkyMall, etc.)
I think it's more about a show of dominance. Just like you can do while training a dog, the more you assert your dominance, the more people will act submissively during the rest of the flight experience. And when people are disobedient, they tend to challenge the least sensible rules first, so having a rule against any electronic device means they'll attempt that rather than the cell phone rule, the seat backs and tray tables rule, the seatbelt rule or the bathroom usage rule.