Can anyone give a specific incident where personal electronics on a plane caused a serious navigation problem?
Categories: Chatter Tags: Faa, Navigation Problem, Personal Electronics
Categories: Chatter Tags: Faa, Navigation Problem, Personal Electronics
On most airlines, the only device that must be turned off at all times is your cell phone. Cell phones can transmit over long distances, and could interfere with instruments (see link).
Other devices can be used at cruising altitude, but must be turned off during takeoff and landing. I think that’s a sensible precaution. Even if only 1 in 100 devices creates interference, how would the crew know which one it is if 100 passengers are using electronic devices? It’s better to turn everything off and play it safe, and it’s only for a short time.
Cellphone and Service Store
Taken from Wikipedia (link in sources)…”A NASA report from 2001[2] summarizes “14 years of incidents reported by pilots to the ASRS” of interference caused, or suspected to be caused, by passenger electronic devices. Mobile phones were the most frequently identified source of interference, with laptop computers a close second. In no cases were the affected avionics found to be defective upon later testing. Degrees of correlation or confidence were not among the data summarized in the report. ”
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The link in sources (.pdf) is for a study done by NASA at Langley. It details documented interference caused by PED’s.
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Cellphone and Service Store
Why wait for an incident. If they don’t want us to use these things for safety, I don’t see a reason to disbelieve what they are saying. Lets remain as safe as possible.