MFLetou

My wife and I were on the last Independence flight #1141 out of BOS to IAD on Saturday, sitting in the exit row. There was a man sitting by himself across from us. As we were climbing out from Runway 27, he pulled out what appeared to be a palm pilot and began using it. As we were still under 10k ft I was curious as to what he was doing. I soon realized it was some type of GPS device...he was tracking our aircraft's progress.

What began making me suspicious is that every time during the entire flight that the Flight Attendant was near, he hid the Palm Pilot. He spent a lot of time staring at her to make sure she wasn't noticing him. On one occassion when he didn't see her approaching he quickly used his hands to cover up the screen. He clearly was going out of his way to hide what he was doing.

As we began our descent into Dulles, the FA made the standed 10k annoucement about tray tables and the use of approved electronic devices. The guy across the row preceded to put his Palm Pilot down when she did her safety walk through and stared straight ahead. Quite frankly, she wasn't paying much attention and clearly didn't even notice he still had it out. When she had sat down into her jump seat, he pulled his Palm Pilot back out and continued to use it until we reached the gate.

I was unsure as to what to do. Quite frankly, I was a bit alarmed by his behavior, but after sizing him up for a while figured he was harmless. I was not aware what DH's rules are for GPS use (some airlines allow it, some don't), but I am quite sure he should NOT have been using it under 10k feet. I didn't say anything, but I wonder now if I should have. I wish the FA had been paying more attention because she surely would have noticed it. It isn't the passenger's jobs to police fellow pax, however...though my understanding is that the likelihood of a device such as that one interfering with an aircraft's nav systems is quite low, nonetheless...why risk it?

Any thoughts on this? Should I have alerted the FA or said something to the passenger?