I was surprised when I heard the statistics of those who don’t. Being one of those people who usually follow the rules, I turned off my electronics before I boarded a plane. It seems the FFA is possibly going to lighten up a bit on their rules, but should they.
Electromagnetic waves put off by passengers electronics devices could interfere with an aircraft’s electronic controls. This would be things as the GPS navigation system. Let’s see now we’re on the plane and have just taken off and we are headed for New York. You look around and everyone is either talking on the phone or playing games on their ipad, ect. You get the idea. We are in the air a couple of hours and the captain announces overhead that we have to turn around because we have been flying towards Spokane Washington and something must have happened to the GPS system. Since this is my story just ignore the fact that the tower should have contacted them long before they discovered they were headed the wrong direction. So since everyone was late they missed their connecting flights.
Dozens of complaints are filed every year by commercial pilots because their instruments went haywire. After they asked the customers to check their electronics to be sure they were off, the problem cleared up. In 1993 the FFA put the ruling in place that the plane had to be above 10,000 feet before any electronic gadgets are turned on. Do you know why it’s 10,000 feet? The flight crew has enough time to react to the circumstances and possibly save our life.
A recent survey conducted showed 40% of passengers with electronics do not bother to turn them off. That’s only 10% less than half thumb their noses at the rules. I find that rather alarming.
Right now there are punishments in place for those who are caught. Alec Baldwin was kicked off an American Airlines flight because he refused multiple times to stop playing a game on his Smartphone. Last year there was about thirty police cars surrounding a plane at La Guardia Airport. Something really bad had happened. A man refused to turn off his cell phone during taxiing, so he was arrested. A Saudi Arabian passenger who flouted the cellphone ban in 2001 received seventy lases. “Ouch”
As I said in the beginning of this piece do we really want them to change the rules. Do you want to talk on the phone more and possibly risk your life. Something to think about.
