Originally Posted by
punktlich02
The Economist wrote on this subject last December:
http://www.economist.com/blogs/babbage/2011/12/avionics
"Every airline flight you are on has at least a handful of mobiles, laptops and other electronic kit left in a standby mode or actively on, rather than shut off as aviation regulators and airlines demand. Every flight, in other words, tests the proposition that hardware carried on board by passengers disrupts the aircraft or confuses the crew with false readings from cockpit instruments. And yet airplane electronics, or avionics to use the technical term, do not routinely squawk or fail. ..."
Has noone here considered the possibility that the rules are there to prevent the worst case scenario developing, rather than expecting every electronic item to start steering the plane on its own?
If we allow electronics to be left on, or start confusing people as to what can and cant be left on, what happens when someone takes on board some form of transmitter that
is powerful enough to interfere? Not everyone in the world is going to be carrying a new iPhone or Macbook.