FAA may make it easier for passengers to use personal electronic devices during takeof

Seems like it will be more hassle than it's worth. Just wait till 10k feet. The interference in the radio when a cell phone is searching for a tower is really annoying.
 
I don't understand why I can't have my iPad on to read a book or magazine, but the dude in 18B can spread a newspaper out across the entire row and that's legal.
 
And this was the description from yesterday's Woot deal:

"If you don't mind, I'm trying to distract myself from the upcoming six hours of hell-in-a-tube by watching a movie on my HP Dual-Core Notebook with Blu-ray."

"Sir, that's what I'm saying. You can't turn that device on until we're at a safe altitude."

"What happens then?"

"Well, then you can turn electronics back on."

"No, I mean what changes that all of a sudden you're not worried about my 17.3" LED Display, 1.9GHz dual-core processor, and 6GB DDR3 memory, and Blu-ray player?"

"Sir, those are the rules."

"Ridiculous! Since when do grown adults accept 'because I said so?' Look, I know what this is about. It's about keeping people cooperative and awake for the safety presentation, but I've flown before. I get it."

"Sir, the laptop prevents you from getting in the proper position should the plane need to make an emergency landing-"

"A crash. You're talking about a crash. And are you honestly going to sit there with a straight look on your face and tell me that the thousands of fatalities in airplane crashes could've been avoided had everyone just been sitting properly?"

"Sir, you need to be alert in case there's an incident-"

"You know what's going to make me alert? The plane suddenly plummeting from the sky. I promise you, I'll take my headphones off if that happens."

"Sir-"

"Actually,you know what? Scratch that. I'm gonna leave 'em on if we crash, because I'd rather spend my last waking minutes watching 300 again than be snapping back to attentiveness with just enough time to face the horrific realization that life is finite and my time is up."

"Sir, I'm going to have the Air Marshall pepper spray you and escort you off the plane if you continue like this."

"All right, you make a good point. I'm turning it off."
 
I think most can agree the rules are stupid. Does a Kindle or MP3 player pose a safety issue for the aircraft? I highly doubt it. The problem is the Feds put the employees in a difficult situation - we must enforce the rules or we risk fines or worse.

I've never flown charter or 91 but I can imagine those laptops and cell phones stay on.

On a side note you'd think Apple would be all over paying for the testing so that their stuff could be the first "airline approved" electronic device. Imagine the marketing with that.
 
Well, the issue isn't "WILL" people's electronics and/or cell phones cause interference with a/c systems, it's that they "CAN". Will Joe Blow's iPhone conversation and Jane Doe reading on her iPad during takeoff cause the plane to crash? Highly doubtful. BUT, the possibility of electrical interference with a/c systems IS a real possibility, and pilots HAVE heard cell phone conversations bleeding through the radios.

The extensive testing to see exactly HOW many devices, WHAT devices, situated at what locations throughout the a/c do cause enough interference to cause issues would be crazy expensive & time consuming. The rules in place aren't about being draconian or authoritarian, they're about being proactive in the absence of the testing required to find out the specifics of the issue.

Will Kindles and iPads being on for takeoff cause issues? I don't know. If someone is willing to take the time & money to test, go for it. The "paying attention during takeoff & landing" reasoning is real, but if that's the case then we have to make everyone put away their books, newspapers, magazines, notepads, and other non-electronic stuff too. Sure, I pay attention during those phases of flight, but I don't think that's something we should go THAT far in enforcing.
 
MQAAord said:
Well, the issue isn't "WILL" people's electronics and/or cell phones cause interference with a/c systems, it's that they "CAN". Will Joe Blow's iPhone conversation and Jane Doe reading on her iPad during takeoff cause the plane to crash? Highly doubtful. BUT, the possibility of electrical interference with a/c systems IS a real possibility, and pilots HAVE heard cell phone conversations bleeding through the radios.
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This- exactly. EMI testing has to be done before you really know. A ground instructor I had years back loved to tell the story (again and again) about how the airline he worked for figured out it was cool to taxi with people using their cell phones. They took a bunch of people with as many devices they could find and tried to see if they could get static on the comms. Gee, that's scientific. I could pull a better test out of a box of cereal.

MQAAord said:
Sure, I pay attention during those phases of flight, but I don't think that's something we should go THAT far in enforcing.
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Actually, I don't think anybody should have anything in their hands during taxi, takeoff, and short final that has hard sides or pointy corners. Those are the phases of flight when the aircraft is most likely to come to a sudden, violent halt and launch that shiny new gadget to the forward bulkhead. Or the back of my cranium while I'm trying to catch a few winks on a deadhead.

Oh yeah, this includes babies. Yep, we can't have stuff that might interfere with movement or become a projectile in our lap, but we can have BABIES there?

This is proof that the powers-that-be (and a lot of cheap, stupid parents) don't give a damn about safety- they assume nothing will ever happen. Yay.
 
Firebird2XC said:
Actually, I don't think anybody should have anything in their hands during taxi, takeoff, and short final that has hard sides or pointy corners. Those are the phases of flight when the aircraft is most likely to come to a sudden, violent halt and launch that shiny new gadget to the forward bulkhead. Or the back of my cranium while I'm trying to catch a few winks on a deadhead.

Oh yeah, this includes babies. Yep, we can't have stuff that might interfere with movement or become a projectile in our lap, but we can have BABIES there?

This is proof that the powers-that-be (and a lot of cheap, stupid parents) don't give a damn about safety- they assume nothing will ever happen. Yay.
Click to expand...

I am massively anti-lap child too, babies have to be in approved carseats in automobiles, but they be held in laps on a plane?! Totally goes against logic & safety.

The argument could be made that we'd all be safer riding rear-facing and wearing 5-pt harnesses too, but we have to accept "some" slack in the ideal of absolute best safety to make some considerations of pax comfort. The traveling public would not be accepting of riding backwards strapped into 5 pt harnesses, though there is no doubt that flying that way IS safer. Laptops, I personally think, are a bit heavy to have in one's lap for takeoff & landing, but a book I think is far less of a threat.
 
What pisses me off about this topic is when my flight attendants get ignored or argued with. I could care less what a device can, will or may do in regards to systems interference. I care about the fact that very low paid hard working people have to deal with jackass pax that cannot fathom the concept of "don't shoot the messenger." I love it when they come to us to deal with it because they have tried everything and the idiot won't turn off the gadget at the gate. My captain always just gives me one look and I'm unbuckling my harness....
 
Yeah, like arguing with the F/A is going to do ANY good at all, and get the policy changed right then and there! Peoplez R stoopid...

I was always the utmost polite when asking people to turn their devices off, I said please when the request was made and said thank you when the request was complied with.. I never had any major issues getting anyone to turn their phone or palm pilots off. However it's been over 8 years since I've worked as a 121 F/A, and the use of phones & devices has quintupled since I was furloughed! So I would imagine attitudes have only gotten worse as far as entitlement issues of people thinking they don't have to turn THEIR device off, as the rules apply to others, but not the THEM.
 
MQAAord said:
I am massively anti-lap child too, babies have to be in approved carseats in automobiles, but they be held in laps on a plane?! Totally goes against logic & safety.

The argument could be made that we'd all be safer riding rear-facing and wearing 5-pt harnesses too, but we have to accept "some" slack in the ideal of absolute best safety to make some considerations of pax comfort. The traveling public would not be accepting of riding backwards strapped into 5 pt harnesses, though there is no doubt that flying that way IS safer. Laptops, I personally think, are a bit heavy to have in one's lap for takeoff & landing, but a book I think is far less of a threat.
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I think the lap child thing is a bit silly too. There is no way that during a crash somebody could hold onto their child and it be safe. It also interferes with them bracing themselves for a crash landing or sudden stop situation.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
 
MQAAord said:
I am massively anti-lap child too, babies have to be in approved carseats in automobiles, but they be held in laps on a plane?! Totally goes against logic & safety.

The argument could be made that we'd all be safer riding rear-facing and wearing 5-pt harnesses too, but we have to accept "some" slack in the ideal of absolute best safety to make some considerations of pax comfort. The traveling public would not be accepting of riding backwards strapped into 5 pt harnesses, though there is no doubt that flying that way IS safer. Laptops, I personally think, are a bit heavy to have in one's lap for takeoff & landing, but a book I think is far less of a threat.
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.. but is it 'passenger comfort' we're looking at.. or operator cost? Personally I believe it's the latter.
 
I've recently heard the 'we don't want you to be distracted during a critical portion of flight' theory. But this makes no sense when you consider people are watching TVs during takeoff when flying JetBlue.
 
RightSeatGirl said:
What pisses me off about this topic is when my flight attendants get ignored or argued with. I could care less what a device can, will or may do in regards to systems interference. I care about the fact that very low paid hard working people have to deal with jackass pax that cannot fathom the concept of "don't shoot the messenger." I love it when they come to us to deal with it because they have tried everything and the idiot won't turn off the gadget at the gate. My captain always just gives me one look and I'm unbuckling my harness....
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I wouldn't personally ever go back there. Just me though. One general PA announcement and if it's still not off we're going back to the gate. Fortunately in 6.5 years only one guy had to leave.
 
MQAAord said:
I am massively anti-lap child too, babies have to be in approved carseats in automobiles, but they be held in laps on a plane?! Totally goes against logic & safety.
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You, and the NTSB, are in agreement on this. However, the airlines would like to make money, and kicking off 5 people yesterday in San Diego would not have made anyone happy.

RightSeatGirl said:
What pisses me off about this topic is when my flight attendants get ignored or argued with. I could care less what a device can, will or may do in regards to systems interference. I care about the fact that very low paid hard working people have to deal with jackass pax that cannot fathom the concept of "don't shoot the messenger." I love it when they come to us to deal with it because they have tried everything and the idiot won't turn off the gadget at the gate. My captain always just gives me one look and I'm unbuckling my harness....
Click to expand...
Four stripes showing up in back and asking, "Why are you delaying us?" is a more effective strategy ;)
 
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