buzzbishop
on - last edited on by
JS
Well, most of the 4 hours. There will be that time when I'll be reminded by the flight crew to turn off my device and remove my headphones. I hate that part. So does Alec Baldwin, and you know what? He has a point.
The 'Airplane Mode' cause has been taken up recently by Nick Bilton of the New York Times whereby he argues that if our mobile devices were so detrimental to aircraft handling, one certainly would have crashed by now.
According to the F.A.A., 712 million passengers flew within the United States in 2010. Let’s assume that just 1 percent of those passengers — about two people per Boeing 737, a conservative number — left a cellphone, e-reader or laptop turned on during takeoff or landing. That would mean seven million people on 11 million flights endangered the lives of their fellow passengers.
Yet, in 2010, no crashes were attributed to people using technology on a plane. None were in 2009. Or 2008, 2007 and so on.
[NYT]
I did this in 2009, and pinged towers in Belize and Costa Rica on a flight from Santiago to Dallas. Nothing happened.
Here are some excerpts of Bilton (and others) asking why we're not allowed to have our own personal devices on and active during a flight. After all, it's called 'Airplane Mode' for a reason.
When EMT Labs put a Kindle through a number of tests, the company consistently found that this e-reader emitted less than 30 microvolts per meter when in use. That’s only 0.00003 of a volt.
“The power coming off a Kindle is completely minuscule and can’t do anything to interfere with a plane,” said Jay Gandhi, chief executive of EMT Labs, after going over the results of the test. “It’s so low that it just isn’t sending out any real interference.”
The F.A.A. does allow some electronics during takeoff and landing. Portable voice recorders, hearing aids, heart pacemakers and electric shavers are permitted during all times of a flight.
So I took a Sony voice recorder and tested that too. The results? The voice recorder puts off almost exactly the same electrical emissions as the Kindle. In many instances of the test, the voice recorder actually emitted more.
[NYT]
Before deciding whether to allow passengers to use phones before takeoff, several airlines conducted ground tests to see if cellphones would interfere with systems. At American Airlines, people dialed cellphones from out-of-service planes parked at various airports. “They found no interaction with the aircraft instruments on any aircraft type,” said Tim Smith, a spokesman for American.
[NYT]
There is one incident that is constantly being cited as proof that navigation can be affected by onboard phones. A New Zealand pilot phoned his wife from the cockpit on approach and the plane subsequently crashed 3 minutes later killing all 8 on board.
In the final report, the New Zealand Transport Accident Investigation Commission stated, “The pilot’s own cellphone might have caused erroneous indications” on a navigational aid.
Since 2000, there have been at least 10 voluntary reports filed by pilots in the United States with the Aviation Safety Reporting System, administered by NASA. In 2007, one pilot recounted an instance when the navigational equipment on his Boeing 737 had failed after takeoff. A flight attendant told a passenger to turn off a hand-held GPS device and the problem on the flight deck went away.
[NYT]
Still, that doesn't explain that if a device is in 'airplane mode', why I can't read an e-book, or scribble down some notes on my iPad. Apple specifically designed airplane mode to comply with FAA regulations.
Airplane mode disables the wireless features of your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch to comply with airline regulations.
[Apple]
The interference with plane navigation is just one of the reasons the industry offers up in asking us to turn off our devices. The others are distraction and paying attention. Bilton has, amusingly, discounted those as well.
Passengers using iPads and Kindles will be distracted if an emergency happens on the flight. Passengers need to be alert.
If this were the case, wouldn’t we tell people not to have books, magazines, newspapers and crossword puzzles during this critical part of a flight? Also, we don’t ask passengers on other forms of public transportation, including buses, trains, boats and cars — where far more accidents happen than planes — to shut down their iPhones or iPads when the vehicle begins moving. Should we tell people they can’t sleep during this time either in case something happens?
An e-reader or iPhone could hurt someone if it fell out of a passenger’s hands in turbulence.
The iPad 2 weighs 1.3 pounds; the hardcover version of the Steve Jobs book weighs 2.4 pounds. There are plenty of other projectiles on planes that could be dealt with, too.
[NYT]
The airlines know the devices are safe, they really do. If they weren't safe they wouldn't be allowed in the cabin, let alone the cockpit. This announcement came down in August, 2011:
United Airlines said on Tuesday that it would give iPads to the 11,000 pilots who fly United and Continental Airlines planes. The new iPads are being labeled electronic flight bags, or E.F.B., and the airline said they would completely replace the pilot’s paper flight manuals.
[NYT]
You can't have an iPad playing Angry Birds at the gate, but the pilot can be sitting right next to the controls flipping through flight charts the entire take off?
Franky, it all doesn't add up. Bilton suggests in the face of the the scientific evidence the airlines will either have to let us have our gadgets in the cabin or in defense of their request to turn them off simply say: "Because I said so!"
