Editorial: Devices on planes -- either enforce the rules or change them

Though lacking the social import of gay marriage or marijuana legalization, the issue of mobile device use on airplanes is heating up again. Now government agencies appear to be bickering about it. The FCC sent the FAA a letter telling it to get off the lavatory and revise the rules. What most people don't realize is the FAA doesn't make the rules, and it was the FCC that banned cell phone use in particular.

In the meantime, both casual and frequent flyers are frothing over whether passengers should be permitted to use their devices during takeoff and landing. Arguments on both sides range from sensible to preposterous. The science is murky and the research takes too long. And while the FAA is profoundly irresolute about whether or not there is any real danger in using personal devices on a plane, the agency is probably not sufficiently motivated to create change.

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Filed under: Misc, Tablets, Transportation, Wireless, Apple

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