Senator Proposes A Bill To Ban 'Gadgets' In The Cockpit

[braunpilot]

Dorgan Bill A Response To Northwest Flight 188

The chair of the Senate Transportation Aviation Subcommittee says he is working on a bill that would ban all personal electronic devices in airliner cockpits. Senator Byron Dorgan (D-ND) says the bill is intended to prevent another incident like the one that occurred on Northwest Flight 188, which traveled about 150 miles beyond its intended destination. The pilots told the NTSB that they did not respond to repeated attempts at contact because they were distracted by using their laptops and a discussion of company policy.

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Senator Byron Dorgan (D-ND)​

Dorgan said he intends to introduce the bill in about a week. In an interview with the Associated Press, he said he was surprised to learn that the FAA does not specifically ban the use of laptops, MP3 and DVD players, and other personal electronic devices by airline pilots. "We now understand from this flight at least that this can happen and there ought to be a more clear understanding by everyone in the cockpit that there is a national standard that would prohibit this and that they need to take it seriously," said Dorgan.


Dorgan said his bill would include and exception for "electronic flight bags."


Dorgan says he expects his bill to be folded into a larger aviation bill already pending before the senate later in the session. He said he expects no opposition to the measure. A similar measure is being crafted by Senator Robert Menendez (D-NJ), and other Senators have expressed support for the bill.

 

[Hacker15e]

They should have just admitted they were sleeping, rather than screwing it up for everyone else with the laptop horsepuckey.

 

[gne in prog]

They should have just admitted they were sleeping, rather than screwing it up for everyone else with the laptop horsepuckey.

what he said.

 

[kellwolf]

Hey, at least now I won't have the company saying "Well, just use your cel phone" in order to get MX stuff cleared up quicker.

 

[wheelsup]

Another example of how stupid and wasteful government is. Laptops were already banned from use in this case yet the pilots used them.

 

[derg]

Hey, at least now I won't have the company saying "Well, just use your cel phone" in order to get MX stuff cleared up quicker.

Well, if we're all about safety, I hope the bill has a part about banning cellphones and PDAs in cars. Not just using then while driving, actually banning all cellphones and PDAs in the passenger compartment of the automobile.

 

[JayAre]

I propose banning Senators on passanger planes.

 

[E_Dawg]

That's cool... no more calculator to figure out W&B. Say goodbye to on time performance!

(yes, REAL airplanes still have manual W&B)

 

[E_Dawg]

I bet if it was illegal to overfly MSP the pilots wouldn't have. Just outlaw everything bad, then nothing bad will ever happen!

 

[trafficinsight]

Does anyone else think that all these bills are a very bad idea?

"I don't like jet noise so I'm going to propose a bill that bans jet noise (near my house)"

 

[rd757]

I wish they would correct the 150 miles... where did that number come from anyway?

RD

 

[WacoFan]

I wholeheartedly agree with this bill, but would include "gadgets" to mean anything in the cockpit that isn't needle, ball and airspeed. Oh sure, I would allow an altimeter, and even a DG and a Gyro Horizon (like we had in the Howard), but none of this new-fangled fancy crap like ADF's, VOR's, or these GPS's that people blather on about. I'm talking OLD SKOOL people...before the airplanes flew themselves with no help from the pilots. If you go old skool like this, perhaps people will pay you like pilots made back then!?

Of course, I have made it my lifes goal never to fly an airplane with a nosewheel again, so I may be biased.

 

[A-300F4-622R]

I wholeheartedly agree with this bill, but would include "gadgets" to mean anything in the cockpit that isn't needle, ball and airspeed. Oh sure, I would allow an altimeter, and even a DG and a Gyro Horizon (like we had in the Howard), but none of this new-fangled fancy crap like ADF's, VOR's, or these GPS's that people blather on about. I'm talking OLD SKOOL people...before the airplanes flew themselves with no help from the pilots. If you go old skool like this, perhaps people will pay you like pilots made back then!?

Of course, I have made it my lifes goal never to fly an airplane with a nosewheel again, so I may be biased.

They should go even further and outlaw flight management computers, autopilot and autothrottle computers! Let's see how the SNAPs fly then!

 

[Killtron2000]

I heard you can play tetris on the garmin G1000.

 

[H46Bubba]

There goes my electronic E6b!

 

[Mike H]

I wish they would correct the 150 miles... where did that number come from anyway?

RD

Maybe they were using Canadian miles

 

[Socal321]

"gadgets" are not allowed anyways in airliner cockpits and no one enforces it. How would they enforce this one? I've never seen anyone use a laptop in a cockpit and I doubt they're going to take away your licenses for having a USA Today in your flight bag.....

 

[Polar742]

Hmmm....since the whole upperdeck of our airplane is considered the "flight deck", and we keep our laptops, cellphones, external hard drives and what not up there to keep them from being removed by ground handlers, what are we going to do about that?

Come to think about it, the company issues us a worldwide cellphone we use to contact them, do scheduling and what not. I have to have that with me.

Shoot. What's a girl to do?

 

[WacoFan]

Hmmm....since the whole upperdeck of our airplane is considered the "flight deck", and we keep our laptops, cellphones, external hard drives and what not up there to keep them from being removed by ground handlers, what are we going to do about that?

Come to think about it, the company issues us a worldwide cellphone we use to contact them, do scheduling and what not. I have to have that with me.

Shoot. What's a girl to do?

You know I have much love for you...so don't take this the wrong way.

But...what you can do is MAN UP and quit flying that pansy jet! Get a job flying a Beech 18 or DC-3 in all weather with only the most basic flight instruments and no real navigational help except a Rand McNally road atlas and a watch with a second hand. No comm radios either - all traffic done with light signals or perhaps flag-men at the end of the runway.

That is just my utopian view of the world though.

 

[derg]

Hmmm....since the whole upperdeck of our airplane is considered the "flight deck", and we keep our laptops, cellphones, external hard drives and what not up there to keep them from being removed by ground handlers, what are we going to do about that?

Come to think about it, the company issues us a worldwide cellphone we use to contact them, do scheduling and what not. I have to have that with me.

Shoot. What's a girl to do?

What about the satellite telephones that we have in the cockpit!

Heavens to murgatroid, I guess we're going to have to land in Lajes before dialing flight control to ask about mid-ocean alternates.

Especially when we're in a dead spot on JFK and the upper and lower antennas can't reach ramp to confirm the gate, I guess we'll have to ACARS it. But then ACARS is nothing more than a text message. Perhaps grant entry to the lead flight attendant so she can text operations and all three of us can keep a steely-eyed stare at the instrument package as we're sitting in the penalty box?