Nick Bilton, for the New York Times:
Michael Altschul, senior vice president and legal counsel for CTIA, the wireless industry association, said a study that it conducted more than a decade ago found no interference from mobile devices.
“The fact is, the radio frequencies that are assigned for aviation use are separate from commercial use,” Mr. Altschul said. “Plus, the wiring and instruments for aircraft are shielded to protect them from interference from commercial wireless devices.”
“Better safe than sorry” is the crux of the FAA’s rationale against allowing people to use electronic devices, but it seems pretty silly. Then again, so do a lot of government regulations.
They did tests on Mythbusters a few years ago and concluded the same thing. There were able to introduce interference to equipment that was removed from the aircraft, but not while it was in an aircraft. Their conclusion was pretty much “yeah, there’s no safety issue, but don’t f*** with the FAA.”
One excuse I heard were that cell phones rapidly hopping from tower to tower as you flew over them caused Problems for the phone industry.
Another is that they don’t want you hooked up to headphones during takeoff and landing when there may be a safety announcement. “in case you didn’t notice while playing Angry Birds, we’re about to crash into the ocean”
On the flights I’m on, there’s always someone hooked up to a music player playing so loudly I can hear it three rows away during takeoff. Nothing seems to happen to them.
It looks like Mark may be correct.
http://www.faa.gov/news/fact_sheets/news_story.cfm?newsid=6275
The FCC has a ban on the use of 800MHz phones aboard planes due to interference with ground networks. That would need to be lifted before the FAA could even think about allowing the use of cell phones on planes.
That article also addresses a number of other interesting topics, such as the history of some of those decisions and why things like Skype or other forms of VoIP are disallowed via WiFi while in-flight.
It is simply a way to have your full attention – they should ban books too!
Someone tell the FAA, I smell bullshit.