NY Times tech guy and finder of his lost iPhone David Pogue has a fun little interview about aeroplanes with a pilot that reveals a few things you might have always wondered about flying winged tubes.
Turbulence is annoying but it doesn’t mean the plane is going to crash. Planes can’t fly themselves. Aeroplane doors can’t be opened mid-flight. Oh and the pilot totally thinks we should totally be able to use our phones on aeroplanes.
In answering a question of whether or not cell phones and gadgets are really dangerous to flying, pilot Patrick Smith says:
“I’d venture to guess at least half of all phones, whether inadvertently or out of laziness, are left on during flight. If indeed this was a recipe for disaster, I think we’d have more evidence by now.”
Pilots use tablets so he said it’s “tough to take a prohibition seriously” and laptops only have to be stowed away in case they decapitate you. So basically, nobody thinks phones should be banned on takeoff and landing other than the dweebs at FAA. Cool.
Check out more of the interview with Smith here. He has a book called Cockpit Confidential out now. [Cockpit Confidential, NY Times]