Personal Electronic Devices

Jan 17, 2006

Why...?

...is it illegal to listen to an iPod on a plane during takeoff or landing?

I can understand shutting down laptops - in case of a rough landing, you might find your hard drive lodged in your liver.

The case against cellphones, as far as I can tell, was never really any danger to the plane itself; it seems to boil down to (a) it messes up phone systems on the ground as the plane moves in and out of each cell too quickly and (b) no one wants to spend a flight listening to other people on their phones.

But what is it with iPods (and other so-called "Personal Electronic Devices")? Returning from London on Ryanair in December, I turned mine on to drown out the rowdy young Italians in the seats behind me (I figured this was a more socially-acceptable solution than, say, strangling them). When the Fasten Seatbelt lights came on, the stewardess came along and told me I had to turn it off. I asked why. "Because it interferes with cockpit equipment." "Frankly, that sounds like rubbish to me," I said. My iPod battery barely lasts two hours. I can't imagine it generating an electrical field strong enough to reach all the way to the cockpit. Even if every person on the plane had an iPod, I still don't see it. If cockpit equipment is really THAT sensitive, we should all be a lot more worried about flying than we already are. Especially since plenty of people surreptitiously keep right on runnng their various electronic devices (I've even sat next to a guy using his cellphone at 30,000 feet).

I can think of a logical reason why arilines might not want passengers to listen to music during landing: in case of emergency, you might not hear important announcements and instructions. But, if that's the reason, why not tell me that, instead of giving a "technical" excuse that doesn't seem to make sense, and therefore begs to be ignored?

I am, of course, willing to be enlightened as to any real technical reason for this rule. It's a pity that my long-time reader from Boeing isn't receiving my newsletter anymore...

later

Ivo sent me a link to some scary congressional testimony