Could E-Readers Soon Be Allowed During Take-Off?

Could E-Readers Soon Be Allowed During Take-Off?

Rules about what devices can be used on planes - and when - could be shaken up sooner than you think.

Being forced to turn off your electronics before take-off and landing is a long-standing complaint of modern air travellers.

The rules are in place because of concerns about signals from electronic or wireless devices interfering with vital flight systems

As The Guardian's Kate Bevan pointed out in an interesting report on Monday, some of those devices you're forced to turn off on flights are much less likely to cause interference than others.

Take e-readers - devices where electricity is usually only used when turning pages. The e-Ink display used by Kindles and other popular readers doesn't need electricity to show text, but only to 'move' the e-ink around. As long as it's in 'airplane' mode it poses exactly the same risk of causing interference in 'wallpaper' (standby) mode as when turned on -- very little.

But now, in the US at least, things may be changing.

According to the AP, the Federal Aviation Administration is forming a committee to determine whether passengers can use electronic devices during the whole flight.

In March the FAA said it would study new ways to test the impact of devices on take-off and landing, and now the committee will research the issue.

So could a glorious future of all-flight e-reading be on the horizon?

Well... Not yet.

The FAA says any study won't be done before March 2013 - and any decision will come take many more months to be reached, agreed and implemented.

And while a change in policy in America could influence UK regulations, there's no guarantee things will change over here.

Indeed, while the UK Civil Aviation Authority claims to have regulations constantly "under review" it also maintains there are no concrete plans to change them.

Worse still, officials told The Guardian that even though non-3G Kindles posed little risk, it was too hard for the cabin crew to check each device, so for now there's no way to safely allow their use.

As a result, if you absolutely have to read Game of Thrones during take-off, you're still going to have to lug that 800-page doorstop around for a few more years yet.

Close

What's Hot