Special No electronics at all landing
 

Landing in CLT last Sunday on the redeye from LAX, the pilot announced that due to some type of special landing we could not have any electronics on at all, even in airplane mode. They repeated this a few times, how they ensured compliance I have no idea. I can't recall ever hearing this, he mentioned the type of landing it was but I don't remember - maybe "outbound" or something?

It was rainy with low cloud cover, but as far as I know otherwise unremarkable.

What could be the story behind that?

Most likely "autoland" not outbound.

This is a caveat carved in to the rules allowing gate-to-gate PED use. In certain circumstances the conditions will necessitate that move. That is seemed unremarkable to you is a testament to the fact that this stuff is incredibly safe, day in and day out.

More in-depth conversation on the same topic from UA a couple days ago, including comments from pilots: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/unite...ed-divert.html.

And here's a thread that came up within the last few months in the AA forum re: Cat II/III ILS approaches: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/ameri...ectronics.html

And if you're interested in learning more, here's a Wikipedia page for you: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inst...III_operations

That's it- thank you.

The announcement woke me up, so I was pretty groggy.

Active discussion in the United Board: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/unite...ed-divert.html

My local airport (ORH) is getting Cat. 3 due to frequent fog. it will be in interesting to see how landings get handled once that is in frequent use.