Airline passengers won’t have to turn off electronic devices

It was probably the most ignored rule in the world.

The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) ruled last week that airline passengers won’t have to turn their electronic devices on takeoff and landings.

The rule change does not apply to laptops or talking on cellphones, but people will now be able to keep their tablets, e-readers and cellphones in airplane mode rather than shutting them off completely.

Not that most airline passengers shut off their devices when told to do so anyway —most simply put them away with powering them down. 

Unenforceable

The rule was simply unenforceable as airlines stewards and stewardesses would have had to check every mobile device to make sure they were powered off. As it was, as long as passengers did not have them out, that was good enough so many devices were still left on even though they may have been in a pocket, purse or carry-on.

The Airline Passenger Experience Association showed that 99 per cent of adult passengers carried at least one electronic device them during a flight in 2012. 

And what were people using?

The top five were smartphones (28 per cent), laptops (25 per cent), tablets (23 per cent), audio players (23 per cent) and e-readers (13 per cent), according to the survey. 

It also showed at least 33 per cent of people did not turn off their devices, either due to ignorance or just blatantly disregarding the rule.

Proof

The airlines will have to show the FAA that electronic devices don’t pose an operational problem.

American, Delta and JetBlue have already submitted plans to the FAA.

Most of the new planes allow passengers to use Wi-Fi at higher altitudes and many other older planes have been modified to do so.

For example, most of American’s fleet allows people free Wi-Fi access while it’s travelling in the US (and within 100 miles of its borders). 

The main reason laptops are still banned is because of safety concerns in case of turbulence as the FAA wants to alleviate the possibility of the devices flying into a passenger.