As Jad Mouawad and I reported, a Federal Aviation Administration advisory panel will meet this week to complete its recommendations to relax restrictions on electronic devices during flights.
The guidelines are expected to allow reading e-books or other publications, listening to podcasts and watching videos, according to several of the panel’s members who requested anonymity because they could not comment on the recommendations.
Below are a sampling of reader questions about the change and answers from the reporters.
I’m all for getting rid of the bogus restrictions on electronics … but texting isn’t allowed while listening to a podcast with headphones is?
— Greg Maletic, Portland, Ore.
Texting would require a data connection, while a podcast can be downloaded to a phone and can be played in Airplane Mode. There are several reasons data connections will remain banned. One reason is that the Federal Communications Commission has requested the ban, because phones trying to connect to cell towers while traveling at hundreds of miles per hour causes too much strain on the cellular network.
Here’s what I don’t get: If an electronic device can really interfere with a plane’s systems, then why are electronic devices permitted even to be carried on planes? Guns are banned because they’re dangerous. Bombs and knives too. If some gizmo can transmit a signal that cripples a plane’s systems, then wouldn’t all gizmos be banned entirely — not just during takeoff and landing? And wouldn’t some bad guy have already tried to hijack a plane using a radio device? — Seth, New York City
Electronic devices cannot interfere with a plane’s navigation system, which is why the rule is going to be changed. The original rules banning electronics were put in place in the 1960s, when CB radios carried on board by passengers caused interference with some pilots’ radios. Since then, planes have become highly insulated and electronics do not interfere with radios. Additionally, most of a plane’s navigational equipment operates on entirely different bands than consumer devices like an iPad.
IPhones, and I suppose other cellphones, have an “airplane mode” setting, which disables Wi-Fi and phone functions. I fail to see why using a phone as an e-book while in airplane mode could possibly pose a danger. Similarly, if a laptop is closed, it is as good as off, so why do the airlines insist that laptops be powered down as opposed to just being closed? — Lew, Efland, N.C.
These are rules that were put in place long before most laptops, iPhones, or “airplane mode” even existed.
Many airlines issue tablets to pilots for use in the cockpit. They’re rapidly replacing — or at least supplementing — the old carry-on bag full of charts. This would seem to indicate that the airlines themselves are fairly convinced there isn’t a problem with at least a limited set of Wi-Fi-enabled devices. — Fry, Sacramento
That’s correct. When airlines and the F.A.A. said it was O.K. for pilots to carry iPads in the cockpit instead of paper manuals, passengers started to question why it was O.K. for these devices to be inches away from the most important part of a plane’s system. At first, the F.A.A. said the electronic emissions from two iPads were very different than those from 100 iPads, but several experts have said that is not true — 100 iPads does not mean 100 times the emissions.
And my 1.026 kg “Steve Jobs” biography is a less dangerous projectile than a 0.68 kg iPad? — Thomas, Nyon, Switzerland
Most hardcover books are much heavier than today’s electronic e-readers and tablets.