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FCC Chief Urges FAA To Ease Airplane Electronics Ban
Hugh Pickens writes "AFP reports that Federal Communications Commission chairman Julius Genachowski is calling for an easing of the ban on using mobile phones and other electronic devices on airplanes during takeoff and landing, saying devices such as smartphones 'empower people' and can boost economic productivity. 'I write to urge the FAA to enable greater use of tablets, e-readers and other portable electronic devices during flight, consistent with public safety,' the FCC chief said in the letter to FAA Administrator Michael Huerta. The ban is in place based on the assumption that devices could interfere with an airplane's navigation equipment. But a number of news stories have questioned the validity of this claim, and many point out that some people forget to turn off their devices during flights. The FCC studied the question several years ago but found insufficient evidence to support lifting the ban at the time. But not everyone has been forced to put their gadgets away. Earlier this year the FAA approved iPads instead of paper flight manuals in the cockpit for pilots, but the agency still refuses to allow passengers to read on Kindles and iPads during takeoff and landing."
Is this for real? Can people really not go without using their stupid devices for 5 minutes at takeoff and another 5 minutes at landing?
SERIOUSLY! You're going to be in the plane, in the air, for an hour, if not far longer. A few minutes at the beginning and end of the trip won't have much impact at all on "economic productivity".
If they ease the ban and it turns out that there IS a device that could mess with an airplane's electronics, people will be complaining that the FAA didn't warn them. The FCC should stay out of matters that could potentially kill hundreds as well as cost airlines money and costumers. It's better to be safe than falling to your death from a couple of miles up.
I always assumed it was because takeoff and landing are done at the lowest altitiudes, and have a higher risk of an emergency happening. Having items stowed and not being distracted may help in surviving an emergency. The fact that passengers can't even manage the feign interest in the safety instructions makes me question if people could pry their eyeballs away from their super important game of angry birds in the event of an emergency :) I've seen plenty of people (of all ages) get sucked into tv and computers so much that it appears they are in a trance and they don't respond to verbal directions as if they hadn't even heard them. I fly frequently, but I say keep them off.
That's not the point. Senseless regulations just for the sake of their being regulations is dumb. Pilots can use them, passengers can't? - and there is no valid reason why not. If they want to say, "No it won't bring the plane down, but we need everyone's attention to listen to this important safety announcement about belt buckles" fine - just be honest about it. Don't treat me like an idiot.
Just don't feed me a line of bullshit about it might interfere with the electronics of the aircraft. The people that buy in to that irritate me almost as much as the control freaks pushing the message. Have rules that make sense and I'm cool. Foist rules that are bullshit and that treat me like an idiot and we have an issue.
So chill out, cupcake. Don't be all "stop your whining" and sarcasm. Whether it is someones big or small problem, it is "their problem" and it shouldn't be A problem if it was based on honesty.
Honestly, do people *really* need to have phone and other electronic devices during takeoff and landing? They can't put the stuff aside for 15 minutes? Are they that dependent? What next, you HAVE to leave the tray table down, you MUST leave your seat back? You're on a fricking plane. Put your stuff away and prepare for landing/takeoff.
I've never really understood why it's so difficult to stop using these things during the crucial parts of the flight. Aside from the electronic signals part, it's also better not to have a bunch of hard, breakable glass, and/or relatively heavy objects floating around the cabin space. Stuff should be stowed below the seats in case there is turbulence or some other issue with the takeoff/landing. It might also be a good idea to have passengers' full attention in case the phrase "brace for impact" comes over the sound system.
If a piece of consumer electronics can bring down a plane, don't you think you should... fix the plane?
As for 'more focused', when the people on the plane tell me to turn off my Kindle, I close my eyes and try to sleep instead. So I'm far less focused.
All it really does is make regular flyers regard anything the crew say as stupid BS.
I agree. The forced photography of one's nude body is a far more egregious violation of our liberties than ten minutes of not using your iPad. I wish more people cared about this.
If you demonstrate, for example, that a Nintendo does not cause interference, then the approval would apply only to the model tested, and not to any other gaming devices.
One could argue that this is overly cautious, but there are devices out there which do interfere with the aircraft. FM radios, for example, can and often do interfere with VOR navigation receivers. If they err, it is on the side of safety. It would take one really bad accident traced to an unapproved device to have the NTSB screaming for the head of everyone concerned.
Disclaimer: I hold airframe and powerplant mechanics certificates, an inspection authorization (lets me inspect aircraft on behalf of the FAA each year), and a general radiotelephone certificate.
How about a half hour on each end of a 2 hour leg were I can't read because brought a Kindle instead of 3 paper books.
When you board, they tell you that when they close the door, you have to turn off your electronic devices and they won't leave the gate until you do. Ostensibly, that's to prevent interference with the radio while they talk to the tower. After you land, while still taxiing, they announce that you can turn on your cell phones, but have to leave everything else turned off. Wait, I thought they said the cell phones were causing interference?
The rule is not just idiotic, it's inconsistently applied.
End of line..
If it were really because of electronic interference potentially causing the plane to crash, I'd be terrified if there was lightning within 2 miles, or an active radar station at the airport.
"Pilots can use them, passengers can't?" Here's why. I spent my career in aerospace, the final two years on experiments involving these Electronic Flight Bags (In my case, ruggedized PCs, not iPads.) There has been hundreds of hours of testing, both in labs and aircraft to show that a particular model of iPad will not cause electronic interference to the controls or other safety critical systems... for that particular iPad model only. The pilot can't just go buy the next gen fondle slab and carry it aboard. Only the model and rev that has been approved. New hardware would require the testing process to begin all over again.
So, maybe if the avionics supplier who bought them from Apple and spent a lot of money going through the approval process would allow you access to their proprietary certification data, you could make a case to the FAA to allow you to use --that exact iPad-- during takeoff and landing. Good luck.
Parent needs to be modded down.
There is nothing insightful, intelligent, researched or valid about this argument.
I was almost done writing a very detailed, intelligent explanation of how EMI manifests in many ways with a few anecdotes from my experience building aircraft and as an audio tech, but then I remembered this is the internet and you're clueless and probably not interested in being corrected.
So, I'm posting for the benefit of other Slashdotters in the hope that this post will help a few people who modded parent up realize that he or she is full of it.
A Faraday cage doesn't protect the things inside it from other things inside it. The airlines don't lobby for the FAA to increase regulation that inconveniences them or their customers and they charge exorbitant amounts of money for sandwiches to try and make up for the fact that their profit margins are negative for flights that don't sell all of their seats.
ethos:
I have built aircraft(not just parts of them)
I have education in electronics and aeronautical engineering
I have a father who was a pilot and started and ran an airline
I have dealt with EMI as an audio tech. Weird things happen with low-quality transmitters.
P.S. Please use your mod points to reduce the visibility of parent post. It is completely undeserving of the credibility(albeit small) that up-modding brings it.