My iPod Will Not Crash Your Airplane by cogdogblog
posted 19 Apr ’08, 11.14pm MDT PST on flickr
I’m getting more acute to the silly rules that we take on like mild sheep.
Supposedly, any electrical device with an on/off switch can cause havoc on a jet’s navigation. What kind of engineers do they have at Boeing, et al?
I dont buy it.
So I have been experimenting.
On 3 of my last flights, I kept my iPod Touch on through landing and lift off. There were no incidents.
One 1 flight, I kepy my laptop open and worked on photo editing.
The plane did not go into a tailspin.
Then there was these announcements on Southwest that some new FAA regulation requires that passengers do not place any items in the seat back pockets during liftoff and landing. No cups. No magazines. No napkins.
We all know the flaps wont work if a seat tray is down, but what the _______ can happen to a plane if I put a plastic cup in a seat pocket?
Hence my subversive protest.
Your planes are safe from my iPod and my questionable taste in music, so until things change, I continue to collect data.
Flickr creative commons photos used here:
flickr.com/photos/brentdanley/353343481/
flickr.com/photos/goodthings/1904048365/
Perhaps the FAA will come after me now?
We’re flying every other week or so from now until after the Fourth of July. I will have to try some of these fun tests. hahahaha
Top blogger Alan Levine was among 324 passengers and crew killed today in a horrific air disaster over Baltimore. The plane, a Boeing 747, plunged into Oriole Park and we have been receiving bizarre reports that the life support systems in every medical facility in downtown Baltimore simultaneously wavered and reset themselves as the plane passed overhead …
This just in – the NTSB have just recovered the black box from the cockpit of the stricken 747. Just as the plane spiralled out of control, the pilot was heard to mutter through clenched teeth, “What the heck? Geez, I hope we don’t have that crazy doggie bloggie guy on board!”
Joseph Authority, spokesman from the NTSB had this to say, “Obviously it’s too early to give a definite answer on this one, but to prevent endless speculation on the 24 hour news stations, I’m going to postulate that this is a combination of an iPod Touch, the wrapper from a moist towelette wipe placed in the seat pocket and some crazed individual eating two packets of peanuts! (his vice begins to shake) Some people think they’re just so damn smart!”
Oh I hope I’m not flying with any of you. While on one level I get what you’re saying, on my highest level I’m a nervous flyer (only back on planes about 3 years after refusing to fly for almost 20!) and I’m not going “see what happens” on a plane filled with hundreds of people!
Though the don’t put anything in the seat pockets things is strange……and I am flying Southwest in July…..hmmmmm.
Ow, what an obit! Okay, I wont use my ipod, especially if it means ruining Oriole Park. Nooooooo.
I’ve never understood the difference between having the phone/ipod/laptop on at the gate and on the runway. With the connection range of these devices, shouldn’t everyone in the airport need to have them turned off?
When I’m flying with my iTouch I usually just turn off the screen so it looks like the whole thing is turned off.
I would think that the whole having things in the seat pocket or the tray down during take off and landing would be related to passenger safety in the event of a “hard landing” or other mishap.
On my most recent flight to Ontario, CA I left my Blackberry on, which I do every time I fly, and something amazing happened this time. In the middle of the flight I got a text message. I thought how can that be that I have a cell signal at 33,000 ft above Arizona. But I did. So I read the message and thought, I wonder if I can reply, so I did. And it worked! I ended up getting two more messages on that flight. I guess Sprint’s service is better than I thought. The good news is nothing happened to the plane.
Check out the Discovery Channel’s show “MythBusters”… they dedicated an entire episode to this topic (#49) and basically proved exactly what you said here!
http://dsc.discovery.com/fansites/mythbusters/episode/00to49/episode.html