We’ve all shot lasers at the jerk who when boarding a plane, is dismissive and rude to the flight attendants before turning to their phone to write a scathing Yelp review of the carrier’s business class lounge because they didn’t serve sparkling cranberry juice or whatever. Then they keep on tapping away while the safety demonstration is going on and have to be forcibly removed from their phone so that a malfunction doesn’t occur, the plane doesn’t go down and the rest of us don’t have to die because some douche bag was really close to clearing that Candy Crush level they were stuck on for four weeks.
Do these jerks not realise that using their phone during take-off and landing can have seriously deadly consequences?
Turns out, though, not really.
Fact: provided your phone (or any electronic device) is in flight mode there is absolutely no reason why you can’t use it for the duration of your next flight.
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) in America have recently shared recommendations made by a 28-member panel of aviation experts with regard to the use of PEDs (Personal Electronic Devices, not the things that make you run good), which found that the use of devices such as phones and tablets posed no safety threat whatsoever – provided they were in flight mode.
The panel still endorsed restrictions on text messaging and web browsing during takeoff and landing but said that almost all new generation aircraft had sufficient shielding to nullify all potential effects of PED use.
The FAA is yet to formally update its takeoff and landing procedures but the next time an amateur air marshal decrees you turn your phone off because they don’t want to die in a plane crash you can just point to the flight mode badge and tell them to get stuffed. Just know that you are a douche bag.
