Yeah of course they would want you to believe that, otherwise who with an iPod (read: everyone) would book their tickets on Qanta's flights?

praefector

well there's a big DUH
nice article though.

jkr's bold comment

@praefector:
Isn't that the same problem? It's obvious the iPod was never the culprit, so the fault lies with Qantas. Thus everyone should be weary of Qantas flights regardless of what electronics they would bring on the plane.

terebakashi

@terebakashi:

I'd be more suspicious of the A330 and whoever builds them.

I suspect that this was a system malfunction and it is possible that it could have happened on any plane. But to be safe, I'm going to stay away from these A330's.

MadMacs

Gotta love fly-by-wire eh? "And the monkey pushes the button."

No offense intended to any current or soon-to-be pilots. ;)

fsusmithc2

@fsusmithc2:

Milhouse: "Bart! Wha... What are you doing?!"

Bart: "Cruise Control, my good man."

Bart & Milhouse: "AAAAHHHHHHH!!!!"

blackmage439

Interference of flight control / navigation equipment caused by "personal electronics" has been a favorite "whipping boy" when unexplained deviations of a flight occur.

I've listened to this argument for years, and as a pilot and electrical engineer, I believe that until such interference is DIRECTLY OBSERVED AND REPEATABLE UNDER CONTROLLED CONDITIONS, there is likely no causal connection between PED energy transmission and flight control anamolies.

While the theory is possible and plausible, namely that personal electronics emit RF energy and can interact with other on-board electrical systems, the practical reality is that if such critical onboard systems were not RFI hardened already, they would be rendered useless due to all the other MUCH STRONGER RFI sources that planes fly by and over regularly (how about all those microwave transmitters, and VHF transmission towers, power lines, etc).

Could there be isolated instances of an "leaking" PED interfering with flight systems whose shielding had become compromised? Possible, but again the practical nature of today's RF environment makes that possibility so infinitesimally small, as it is more likely an aircraft will spontaneously combust due fuel vapor ignition than suffer significant flight control degradation from PED RFI.

avi.weiss

Oh, and it it really was a piece of Geek Gear that did that, then the Osama Bin Laden's boys would all be out buying pocket protectors and geek glasses and reading "Airbus 330 Hacking for Dummies".

Krrong

It was probably some 12 year old Aussie kid on the ground with a DIY RC unit. "Oi! G'day! Check out this Airbus 330! Ain't she a beaut? Let's see her do a loop!" (pardon the accent)

Krrong

sooner or later, they will find out that it was human error (likely on the pilots' end), may be he extended the slats... most of the time it is usually human error on such occurrences. We will soon find out.

bmw5

Whew! Then Rain Man can continue to fly.

+ Watch video

SeattleTed

I hate it when my Air Data Inertial Reference System gets an attitude, and then supplies that bad attitude information to the plane's electronic instrumentation system!

TheVelourFogg

This is sage advice on how to fix problems with the auto-pilot:

"Don't panic, on the belt line of the automatic pilot there's a tube, now that is the manual inflation nozzle. Take it out and blow on it."
from McCroskey's Manual on Aircraft Emergency Procedures and Addiction, (C) 1979, published 1980 by Abrahams, Zucker, et al. .

DeadWriter

@DeadWriter: I just want to tell you both good luck. We're all counting on you.

Surely you've seen one of those before.

GenericWhiteGuy

My friend (who was sitting next to me) had a pot of coffee dumped on him on a Qantas flight.

True story.

jschell

Thanks for confirming what we all knew!
Not being ironic here, really thanks.
At least the didn't kept with that bs story.

Bokusatsu_Tenshi

I can prove quite simply that personal electronics cannot affect airplanes.

1) Most people never turn off their electronics. Because they know it's stupid. And yet no crashes are caused by this.

2) If they did, terrorists would just wear 100 cellphones onto a plane to crash it.

See?

-j

hilobird

@praefector: Hah. If it was interference, do you think they'd actually let the world know? Think of all the malicious stuff that could be done... It's like telling the world that putting Mentos in diet soda causes a geyser... (think of all the college pranks)

ugar