Sunday, December 25, 2011

Why should I switch off my tablet and headphones during take-off?

Planes now have WiFi and DirecTV service, and the cockpit is constantly communicating with a tower. How is my phone connecting to a Cellular/3G tower going to cause an issue?

Let's say that the attempt to connect to a Cellular tower does bad things. What's the problem with the following devices being switched on during take-off and landing:
- noise-canceling headphones
- DVD player playing a movie
- iPod playing music

Do these devices create a harmful electromagnetic field only during take-off and landing? Airlines and rules need to update themselves to be relevant in the 21st century.

Update: Airline pilots can use iPads in the cockpit for the duration of the flight. Read this followup for some EMT findings: http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/12/25/disruptions-tests-cast-doubt-on-fcc-rules-on-kindle-and-ipad-html/?hp

1 comment:

  1. As annoying as this may be, there is some method behind the madness:

    http://www.cs.odu.edu/~mln/ltrs-pdfs/NASA-2001-cr210866.pdf
    http://business.tepper.cmu.edu/files/ieeespectrummarch2006peds.pdf

    Google Scholar FTW! Here is the query: http://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en&as_sdt=0,22&q=cell+phone+interference+airplane

    -Karan

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