Fliers Still Must Turn Off Devices, but It’s Not Clear Why. This is my least favorite aspect of flying. The notion that my tiny Kindle can endanger an airplane is ludicrous. Laws and regulations that have no basis in reality make me want to bash my head against a wall.
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I dunno. My brother the retired Air Force flight engineer-turned-pilot, while giving me flying lessons, laid out specific reasons why it was still necessary (not that I paid enough attention to recall specifics, just enough to remember my response of, “Huh. I really thought that was all crap. Guess not.”). 1 tiny Kindle isn’t the same a 300+ 3G/wifi devices looking for a signal to claim.
Yeah, although according to some electrical engineers Nick Bilton talked to, turning the devices off could actually be worse from a simultaneous-bombardment standpoint.
It’s an important time for communication between the tower and the cockpit, and there are many frequencies in use for a whole spectrum of different signals, some from the pilot, some from the plane. While most consumer electronics are fcc approved and guaranteed not to interfere, it is still quite possible to tamper with those devices, allowing them to interfere with communications. Asking you to turn off your device helps mitigate this possibility.
Additionally, people using electronic devices are less inclined to pay attention to announcements from the cockpit, which could endanger them and those around them.