F.A.A. Nears New Rules on Devices
Marty Katz for The New York Times
New F.A.A. rules are expected to allow devices to be on at all times, but with communications off.
By JAD MOUAWAD and NICK BILTON
Published: September 22, 2013
This week, an F.A.A. advisory panel will meet to complete its recommendations to relax most of the restrictions. The guidelines are expected to allow reading e-books or other publications, listening to podcasts, and watching videos, according to several of the panel’s members who requested anonymity because they could not comment on the recommendations. The ban on sending and receiving e-mails and text messages or using Wi-Fi during takeoff or landing is expected to remain in place, as is the prohibition on making phone calls throughout the flight, the panel members said.
The panel will recommend its new policy to the F.A.A. by the end of the month and it will most likely go into effect next year.
The coming change represents a cultural milestone of sorts for the digital age, the moment when mass travel and mass communication finally meet.
Airlines and pilots have reported hundreds of instances over the years where they suspect electronic devices caused some cockpit instruments to malfunction. But the evidence is largely anecdotal, and regulators have never been able to establish conclusively that electronic devices interfered with flight instruments.
Even with the ban, many passengers forget to turn off their devices or ignore calls by flight attendants to power off. Airlines are expanding the use of wireless systems on board, offering live television and even considering streaming movies or music directly to passengers’ own devices. But changing aviation safety policy is a slow process.
For many passengers, the ban has been a source of frustration. John Shahidi, a technology entrepreneur, ignored the order to turn off his cellphone late last year, but this time a flight attendant caught him sneaking a look at his iPhone, he said — and instead of a gentle scolding, she opted for a public shaming. She stood there, he said, staring at him, and announced that the plane would not take off until he had powered down the phone.
“It was so utterly embarrassing,” said Mr. Shahidi, the chief executive of RockLive, a start-up company from San Francisco.
Last year, the F.A.A. created the advisory panel of industry experts to update the rule. It was supposed to report back in July but requested an extension until the end of September to sort out some technical materials, an indication of just how complicated the deliberation has been.
“This is like shooting at a moving target,” said Douglas Kidd, the head of the National Association of Airline Passengers and a member of the advisory committee looking into all these issues. “We have to make sure the planes can handle this. But there’s a lot of pressure on the F.A.A. because passengers are very attached to their devices.”
The panel wants to be able to present a single policy from “gate to gate” that would apply to all airlines, and all types of airplanes, according to several of its members who requested anonymity because the discussions were private. Instead of testing devices, the F.A.A. will ask that the airlines certify that their planes can tolerate interferences — something they have done when installing Wi-Fi on board, for instance. Once that is done, the airlines can allow electronic devices, perhaps by next year.
The review has not included mobile voice communications, which are prohibited by the telecommunications regulators at the Federal Communications Commission because they interfere with transmissions between cell towers on the ground.
More than two billion portable electronic devices will be sold this year, according to the research firm Gartner. Air travelers own a disproportionately large share of these devices, particularly smartphones and tablets, whose use is growing at the fastest rate. Shipments are expected to more than double by next year compared with 2012, to 276 million units.
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