Cell Phone-Using Passengers Risk Airplane Safety
After studying the use of cell phones and other portable electronic devices on commercial aircraft, a team of Carnegie Mellon University researchers has concluded that passengers are regularly violating the ban on using the devices and are creating risk to airplane navigation. I guess I’ll still have to yell at the guy talking on the phone during take off and landing. I hate when people talk on their phone during initial flight!
“These devices can disrupt normal operation of key cockpit instruments, especially Global Positioning System (GPS) receivers, which are increasingly vital for safe landings,” said Bill Strauss, one of the Carnegie Mellon investigators, in a statement this week. “What we found was disturbing,” the researchers wrote in an article in this month’s IEEE Spectrum. “Passengers are using cellphones, on the average, at least once per flight, contrary to FCC and FAA regulations, and sometimes during the especially critical flight phases of takeoff and landing.”
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