Cell phone nonsense

[Bill Greenwood]

For 20 years or so, the airlines and the FAA have been telling people the fantasy that they had to turn off cell phones and I pods and the like when flying or even taxiing on airlines, for safety reasons.
If you take a moment to think clearly about this, it is pretty obvious that this is nonsense which never had any basis in fact and certainly is not true now.

It doesn't take much common sense to realize that if you really could make a plane crash or deviate from an ILS , just by turning on a small, common electrical device, then it would be pretty easy for a few terrorist passengers to take advantage of this. Never happened.
And now not a week after American Airlines had actor Alec Baldwin denied a flight because of his device , their pilots were approved to use I pads in the cockpit; a lot closer to the nav radios than any passenger phone.


Despite this, there are still a few people that are fearful of flying and will believe any ridiculous story they are fed, if it confirms their paranoia.

Now it is announced that the FAA is "going to study the issue again".

I don't think they like to admit they are wrong, as a matter of fact in 30 years of flying, I have only once heard an FAA guy admit that, and then it was only when I had the printed copy of an official NOTAM in my hand.

Or I wouldn't be surprised if they come up with some supposed new justification that a cell phone can affect a plane.