Freedom in the Sky

Yesterday was the start of a even better relationship between me and the FAA. I have been flying my entire adult life and the silly notion that my mobile device could cause dangerous havoc has always astounded me. Sure it was only an inconvenience to have to shut down my iPhone or tablet or Kindle on take off and landing but I always believed that there was no real technical reason for this rule being there.

Airplanes are one of the most amazing machines ever built by mankind. Think about, at 6:50 AM the wife and I are in cold and foggy Philadelphia and by 10:00 AM we are enjoying Florida weather and walking through EPCOT at Walt Disney World. Also being heavily involved in the tech world the mere notion that mobile devices were dangerous to air travel bugged me.

My believe was made certain about a year ago when an off duty US Airways crew member sat on her iPhone texting away as we took off on our flight while everyone else of course had turned there's off.

Anyway as I reported a couple of months ago the FAA has finally lifted this silly rule. Yesterday was my first flight where the passengers were simply directed to switch their mobile devices to "airplane mode". Airplane mode turns of the cellular and wireless services on your devices, but they continue to function otherwise. This means you can read you Kindle, listen to music, work on that critically important document or watch a movie on your iPad.

Laptops (anything over 5 labs) are still required to be put away during takeoff and landing which is simply so they do not start flying around if things get a little bumpy. This rule I understand.

For me, what did I do this time on my first flight of tech freedom? I simply continued listening to music on my old iPhone while we took off and landed. Maybe next time I will read my Kindle or watch a movie.

The Big Question

But why was this silly rule imposed on us air travelers for so long? I have also felt that there was no technical or mechanical reason but one of "safety". Yesterday's flight proved this to me. As we were getting ready for takeoff and the crew were running down all of the safety rules (oxygen masks etc.) almost no one was paying attention. You guessed it, almost every passenger was reading, watching a video, playing a game or like me, listening to music.

Passengers do need to hear these safety rules - so I am predicting that once this behavior is observed by the airlines on a regular basis there will be a modification that requires something more from the air traveler. So stay tuned and watch for this to happen in a year or so.