The US Federal Aviation Commission says it’s safe for passengers to use more types of electronic devices during any phase of a flight.

It’ll be up to individual airlines to make policy changes, but basically the FAA is saying it’s cool if you want to use your phone, tablet, Kindle, or other device in airplane mode at any time while you’re in the air. Within the next few months the FAA expects passengers will be able to use devices “gate-to-gate.”

WiFi logo

According to the FAA, you’ll still have to disable cellular capabilities on your electronic devices, but WiFi and Bluetooth is fine. You’ll also be expected to hold your devices or put them in the seat back pocket during the actual takeoff and landing — but you no longer have to wait until the airplane has reached a certain height to power up electronic devices.

That means you can connect to in-flight WiFi at any point it’s offered during your flight, and you can use Bluetooth keyboards, headphones, or other accessories.

The FAA still advises passengers to put down devices (or old-school books, magazines, and newspapers) during the safety briefing so you’re actually paying attention when someone points out the exits, oxygen masks, and other things that could potentially save your life. And if flight crew tells you to turn off your device, you’re still supposed to do it.

In some low visibility conditions, for instance, some electronic devices can cause problems with landing systems, so it’s probably best not to try to argue with the flight attendant when they tell you to close your laptop.

FAA Personal Electronic Device guidelines

via The Verge

 

 

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2 replies on “You are now free to use your tablet about the cabin”

  1. You won’t be “free to use your tablet about the cabin” until the carriers get around to qualifying their fleet to the new FCC regs and their cabal sets the service fee for accommodating passengers’ desires in this regard.

  2. “you’ll still have to disable cellular capabilities on your electronic devices”
    Are they going to check every single device if it has cellular capabilites and make sure it’s off? Sounds like time sitting at the gate are going to increase.

    Also, you’ll probably get even more passengers arguing with the attendant when asked to turn off their device for some other reason like what was mentioned in this article saying someting like, “I have the right to use my device now. The government said so.”

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