FAA To Allow Use of Most Electronic Devices Throughout Flights

alstor writes "As previously expected, the FAA has announced that most portable electronic devices may be used throughout the duration of a flight. Mobile phones may still only be used in airplane mode without cellular service."

Best of both worlds

[barlevg]

Now you'll be able to read your kindle on the plane, but you still won't have to put up with the passenger next to you carrying on a loud phone conversation (save, maybe voip?).

The ban was always bullshit anyway

[korbulon]

Like the war on water, it's largely been about control and government rules abetting private interests. I suppose in this case airlines and the faa and whoever the fuck else stands to make a buck off of this realized it is more profitable to let the monkeys paw their gadgets 100% of the time, instead of the usual 96%.

Re:The ban was always bullshit anyway

[ibwolf]

I thinks the reason this is being revised is because this rule has inconvenienced people that have the power to do something about it (e.g. US senators). I'm sure airport security screening would be greatly improved if everyone, with no exceptions, had to go through the same type of screening.

Re:Keep the phone ban

[fuzzyfuzzyfungus]

Given that aircraft fly around in a veritable EM soup (AM, FM, VHF transmission towers, the spark gaps of an angry god [wikimedia.org], etc.), I would hope that every phone on the plane draining its battery in a coordinated RF scream would be a survivable event. Whether all the chatter raises the noise floor or introduces errors into sensitive measurements is a subtler but more likely issue.

Re:Differnent from current?

[Obfuscant]

How exactly does this differ from the policies from now? Airplane-mode only, check. Turned off during take-off and landing, check.

Uncheck. On for take-off and landings, except for special cases when visibility is low and the low visibility navigation systems are not PED certified.

Wi-fi allowed (if you want to pay the airline $20 for a couple hours' access), check.

Uncheck. Wi-fi and bluetooth allowed, with no requirement to pay the airline. I figure it will be interesting to run an open NAP and see how much data can be sniffed from devices trying to get a wi-fi connection. Or to spoof a lot of large online services to get login credentials. Fun.

Where's the big change?

/. commenter who hasn't bothered to read TFA, check. No change.

Zero accidents ever

[sjbe]

Actually I think it's more to do with the fact that old PCN & GSM phones gave off quite a bit of interference

Which caused precisely zero plane crashes.

Most phones these days hardly use those spectrums and anyway you've still got keep the phone in flight mode.

Not for any evidence based reason. There are social reasons to not allow cell phones (annoys your fellow passengers when you talk loudly) but thousands of phones are turned on every single day in airplanes for the entire duration of the flight (both intentionally and not) and there has not been a single accident ever as a result. If it were actually a safety risk then the ONLY effective solution would be to ban cell phones entirely from the plane. Based on the fact they haven't done this it is not a risk factor and the FAA knows it.

"Safety" demonstration

[sjbe]

If you'll please pay attention to our safety demonstration and procedures speech...

You mean the one where they explain how to use a seatbelt for everyone who hasn't been in a car in the last 40 years?

Re:Best of both worlds

[khr]

that all rules are silly.

Who believes that all rules are silly? It's only the rules people don't like that are silly. The ones that affect others are great.

Re:Best of both worlds

[Obfuscant]

Who believes that all rules are silly? It's only the rules people don't like that are silly.

No, it's rules that they don't understand that they think are silly. And evidence shows that many people who use cell phones believe there is some magic involved that carries their voice to the intended recipient. That's why back in the 90's a vocal group of idiots managed to get laws enacted [textfiles.com] to insure their privacy while using analog CDMA cell phones. After all, it was a CELL PHONE and they had every reason to expect privacy in their conversation, even though they were using RADIO to send their VOICE over the public's airwaves. Thus it became illegal, and remains illegal to this day, for the sale or import of certain kinds of radios that can receive frequencies allocated to cellular telephone services.

Re:Best of both worlds

[Lumpy]

This comes from people not smacking them or publicly ridiculing them. When an asshat in first class refuses to get off the phone, yelling "Hey moron! hang up the phone, are you too stupid to understand what the lady just said?" is the proper response instead of just sitting there. If there are no consequences they will never change their behavior.

Re:Best of both worlds

[itsdapead]

Now you'll be able to read your kindle on the plane,

Its ebooks that make the no-electronics-below 10000 feet rule intolerable. I can survive for an hour* without music or twitter, but the amount of entertainment that can be extracted from the in-flight magazine, duty free catalogue, in-flight safety card, back of the 'motion discomfort' bag etc. is strictly limited. Especially if its a return flight and you memorised it all on the way out...

*Anybody who talks about '10 minutes during takeoff and landing' is clearly flying from different airports than me...