Is The FAA About To Allow Electronic Device Use During Takeoff?

Is The FAA About To Allow Electronic Device Use During Takeoff?


Everybody hates having to stop reading ebooks, listening to music and playing Angry Birds during take-off. But it’s not a fact of life; the US Federal Aviation Administration is rethinking its policy on using electronic devices during takeoff and landing. About. Bloody. Time.

According to a report by the New York Times, the FAA is planning to take a “fresh look” at the ban on using electronic devices during taxi, takeoff and landing. It is, however, not budging on phones; any changes will be for tablets, ereaders, MP3 players and the like.

Currently, every single device that needs to be approved for use on planes has to be tested on an empty flight — one at a time. What’s more, that has to be done on every plane in an airline’s fleet. No wonder no airline bothers changing the status quo; it would cost a fortune.

So the FAA is planning to change that system, by working with “manufacturers, consumer electronic associations, aircraft and avionics manufacturers, airlines, pilots, flight attendants and passengers”. It’s six years since the FAA inspected the process — in which time we’ve seen pilots using iPads and the percentage of passenger bags containing Kindles rocket — but this time we might actually see a change. [New York Times]

Image: Derrick Coetzee


The Cheapest NBN 50 Plans

It’s the most popular NBN speed in Australia for a reason. Here are the cheapest plans available.

At Gizmodo, we independently select and write about stuff we love and think you'll like too. We have affiliate and advertising partnerships, which means we may collect a share of sales or other compensation from the links on this page. BTW – prices are accurate and items in stock at the time of posting.