I have long advocated that turning off electronic devices before taking off and landing on an airplane was completely unnecessary and absolute horse manure not based in fact.
If my Ipod can take down a plane, then the airline industry is more screwed than I thought.
I love being vindicated by a former FAA administrator and current George Mason professor in his recent book:
Donohue argues in "Terminal Chaos" that those iPods, cell phones and laptops you are ordered to turn off during takeoffs and landings actually don't interfere with airline navigation systems.
"The FAA has never been able to confirm these fears, thus private pilots routinely use their computers close to navigation equipment without any problem," he writes in a chapter entitled "Passengers Who Act Like Sheep Will Be Treated Like Sheep."
"The federal government cannot compete with the private sector for competent engineers. The government can't compete with Nextel and AT&T and Verizon and Sprint for the qualified engineers to do modern information technology," said Donohue, who advocates having the private sector play a greater role in modernizing aviation communications. "We're working with a system that is adequate for the 1950s."
Article on Airline Chaos
Q&A with George Donohue
"Terminal Chaos"
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