Originally Posted by
beerup
The anecdote at the end of the article isn't that reassuring - a bad choice for an analogy IMO. If an electronic device was equivalent to a flock of geese, then with a couple of hundred passengers, many using electronic devices and some using multiple would be like 100 flocks of geese. If the evidence was that allowing electronic devices jeopardized as much as 100 flocks of geese flying at a plane during take off, I certainly would not be an advocate! Bird strikes are not trivial.
...and yet, in the past fifteen years (let's call it the "ubiquitous mobile device era") it looks like there hasn't been a single fatal accident attributed to bird strikes. Which isn't to say they're not trivial; in fact, many people would probably agree they're dangerous but then turn around and use the "but no one has died from mobile devices" argument to justify relaxing the ban on the devices.
FWIW, I think relaxing the restrictions on most devices makes sense--especially e-ink readers that draw hardly any power at all.