Turn your laptop off right now or else!

[mikoyan29]

Valid concern, I suppose, though I have to wonder how much damage my iPod could do to someone if it was tossed into the air or something. Besides, who's keeping their iPod or DS or whatever where it can get tossed into the air or get flung at someone at high speed?

If the plane has done something that makes your little MP3 player suddenly dart off across the cabin, chances are that that MP3 player is the least of your concerns

Besides, the reason they always give us is the stuff about it interfering with navigation and all. Hogwash, I say! HOGWASH!

If there is a chance that it could cause a problem, I'd rather be inconvenienced for the 15 minutes or so I need to have the stuff off than the rest of my life....

Plus, with all the stuff they are making wireless these days...who knows.

[AirHostess]

http://www.wisegeek.com/why-do-all-e...nd-landing.htm

Also I have sat in the flight deck before with the headset on and you can hear the interference over the headphones. When the pilots are trying to talk to air traffic control it could potentially be dangerous.

Also...if your laptop is on it could go flying around the cabin if we crash, the g-forces causing severe injury.

[Mister]

There was a rumour going around a decade ago or so;

A female flight attendant was being targeted by some losers, making remarks, demanding things even going so far as slapping her behind. When she told them to stop they responded with "But we're goldwingers". She politely asked to scan their card, took it in the pantry, cut it in half and deposited it in the lap of the passenger saying "Now you are nothing".
The airline backed her up, to this day it stays with me as an example of corporate management doing the right thing.


About interfering laptops, if a laptop could interfere with the onboard computers, a LAN-Party would be impossible, so it's all about unsecured objects during a "bumpy ride". About mobile phones interfering, credit to the Mythbusters and all, but every nerd on the planet knows the sound his/her desktop speakers make when his/her mobile phone is about to ring.

[Automan Empire]

LOL @ Goldwings story.
That passenger deserved redwings!
A lot can go wrong during a landing. An unsecured lappy could retain quite a bit of delta-vee if the plane did anything sudden. The person LEAST likely to be injured would be the person holding it of course.

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

This reminds me of a Dilbert comic:

"Turn off that F#*&%'n laptop!" (as the plane is in a nosedive)

"No way! I've got to land this baby! Can you do that in Excel?"

[Pagan]

If the plane has done something that makes your little MP3 player suddenly dart off across the cabin, chances are that that MP3 player is the least of your concerns

An object in motion tends to stay in motion. If the plane has to stop quickly, whatever device is unsecured is still moving. And the movement of the plane is necessarily because there's something wrong.

Know how everyone keeps a box of tissues sitting in the back window of the car? Have you ever seen one of those things go flying during an rapid deacceleration of said car? Multiply that by the velocity of the plane.

[zymry]

From episode 1 of the west wing

FLIGHT ATTENDANT 2
You can’t use your phone until we land, sir.

TOBY
We’re flying in a Lockheed eagle series L-1011. It came off the line 20 months ago
and carries a Sim-5 Transponder tracking system. Are you telling me I can still
flummox this thing with something I bought at Radio Shack?

[mikoyan29]

If there was the slightest chance that passengers devices would interfere with equipment then we wouldn't be allowed to have them. There's no way an 8 year old would be trusted to follow directions and keep his game turned off if there really was a potential issue with them. Still as someone else pointed out, rules-is-rules

That is why the flight attendants patrol the cabin just before landing.

I still wish I could remember which crash it was.

http://www.bluecoat.org/reports/Ladkin_97_EMI.pdf

[Broomjockey]

Now multiply that by the speed in an aircraft if something goes wrong.

Have you ever seen one of those things go flying during an rapid deacceleration of said car? Multiply that by the velocity of the plane.

Twins! We should get matching shirts. My favourite colour is blue.

[crazylegs]

Valid concern, I suppose, though I have to wonder how much damage my iPod could do to someone if it was tossed into the air or something. Besides, who's keeping their iPod or DS or whatever where it can get tossed into the air or get flung at someone at high speed?

Momentum is equal to velocity x mass. In addition plastics are often very much harder than humans.

Say for example PKAH is on a 747, depending on how far away from the airport the aircraft is the aircraft could be travelling as fast as 342km/h, even assuming a DS only weighs .5kg said DS would be acting with a force equiv to 171kg, good luck with that staying in your pocket...

[earl colby pottinger]

Electronics

A quick point.

I watched a show a couple of years ago that showed that the internal shielding in planes protected them against all sorts of EM interference.

THEN!!!!!

They showed what happenned if a service tech *did not* seal-up proper after working on the internal wiring.

A number of the cockpit readings became a real mess.

So, if the plane is properly maintained you have nothing to worry about from your electronics, but let someone be a little to rushed to get the job done, or forgetful because of last night's big fight with the S.O. and you don't want any personal electronics turned on during landing and takeoff.

On an 7 hour flight, I can spare the 10-15 minutes at take-off and landing.

[crashhelmet]

How many planes have built in television monitors or phones in their headrests. What about the radio services a lot of them offer. All of these devices could emit the same interference they claim others do.

But what electronics devices are commonly used on planes? Cell phones, handheld video games, laptops, dvd players, and walkmen/mp3 players/etc. All devices that get noisy or make people noisy.

My personal opinion is that these rules were implemented to maintain a peaceful flight and not have to deal with passengers yapping on their cell phones through the whole flight or blasting their portable music devices. Better to say "We're sorry but they cause problems for the plane" than to create animosity on the flight.

CH

[Midnight12]

its probably just me but if I HAVE to have an electronic device with me on a flight its going to be off most of the time unless its a flight longer than 2 hours. I suppose its the thought that I don't want to be the reason said plane cannot land, is late landing or worse. yeah. but then again i'm also the same person who refuses to have the newest cell phone with a mini comp in it as i already have a laptop why do i need another "portable comp"

[mikoyan29]

My personal opinion is that these rules were implemented to maintain a peaceful flight and not have to deal with passengers yapping on their cell phones through the whole flight or blasting their portable music devices. Better to say "We're sorry but they cause problems for the plane" than to create animosity on the flight.

CH

There's anotehr issue with cell phones and planes. I think I read that they can't switch cells fast enough when they are on a plane and get confused or something...

[Arm]

How many planes have built in television monitors or phones in their headrests. What about the radio services a lot of them offer. All of these devices could emit the same interference they claim others do.

But what electronics devices are commonly used on planes? Cell phones, handheld video games, laptops, dvd players, and walkmen/mp3 players/etc. All devices that get noisy or make people noisy.

My personal opinion is that these rules were implemented to maintain a peaceful flight and not have to deal with passengers yapping on their cell phones through the whole flight or blasting their portable music devices. Better to say "We're sorry but they cause problems for the plane" than to create animosity on the flight.

CH

The television monitors, etc. that are built into the planes can be, and most likely are, either shielded to prevent interference, or represent a known interference that the plane's equipment can then ignore.

Shielding equipment that you know is there is not especially difficult, though it can be costly. At its most basic level, shielding simply consists of a metal box that surrounds the offending item.

Passenger electronics will always be different; you can't predict the future and know what passengers will be carrying around on any given day. Similarly, passengers can't easily be stuffed into small metal boxes so that they can safely operate their electronics.

Would it be possible to build a completely shielded passenger cabin? Sure, but nobody does that, yet.* And even if they did, it wouldn't change the older planes. So, we'll have to turn off our electronics for quite some time to come.

Mikoyan's article is a good one.

*there would be a number of potential hurdles; extra weight, the fact that passengers like windows, and so on. That's probably why nobody does it. But in theory, it could be done.