Play iPhones on Planes Blamed for Navigation Disruption
The regional airliner was climbing past 9,000 feet when
its compasses went haywire, leading pilots several miles off course
until a flight attendant persuaded a passenger in row 9 to switch off an
Apple Inc. (AAPL) iPhone.
The cockpit of a Boeing Co. 787
Dreamliner is shown during an event in Arlington, Virginia. Laboratory
tests have shown some devices broadcast waves powerful enough to
interfere with airline equipment, according to NASA, aircraft
manufacturer Boeing Co. and the U.K.’s Civil Aviation Authority.
Photographer: Joshua Roberts/Bloomberg
Even Delta Air Lines Inc., which
argued for relaxed rules, told the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration
its pilots and mechanics reported 27 suspected incidents of passenger
electronics causing aircraft malfunctions from 2010 to 2012.
Photographer: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg
“The timing of the
cellphone being turned off coincided with the moment where our heading
problem was solved,” the unidentified co-pilot told NASA’s Aviation
Safety Reporting System about the 2011 incident. The plane landed
safely.
Public figures from U.S. Senator
Claire McCaskill to actor
Alec Baldwin
have bristled at what they say are excessive rules restricting use of
tablets, smartphones, laptops and other devices during flights.
More
than a decade of pilot reports and scientific studies tell a different
story. Government and airline reporting systems have logged dozens of
cases in which passenger electronics were suspected of interfering with
navigation, radios and other aviation equipment.
The FAA in
January appointed an advisory committee from the airline and technology
industries to recommend whether or how to broaden electronics use in
planes. The agency will consider the committee’s recommendations, which
are expected in July, it said in a statement.
Laboratory tests
have shown some devices broadcast radio waves powerful enough to
interfere with airline equipment, according to NASA, aircraft
manufacturer
Boeing Co. (BA) and the U.K.’s
Civil Aviation Authority.
Airlines Split
Even
Delta Air Lines Inc. (DAL), which argued for relaxed rules, told the U.S.
Federal Aviation Administration
its pilots and mechanics reported 27 suspected incidents of passenger
electronics causing aircraft malfunctions from 2010 to 2012.
Atlanta-based Delta said it couldn’t verify there was interference in
any of those cases.
The
airline industry
has been divided. Delta said in its filing that it welcomes more
electronics use because that’s what its passengers wanted. United
Continental Holdings Inc. said it preferred no changes because they’d be
difficult for flight attendants to enforce.
CTIA-The Wireless Association, a Washington trade group representing mobile companies, and
Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN),
the Seattle online retailer that sells the Kindle e-reader, urged the
U.S. FAA last year to allow wider use of devices. Personal electronics
don’t cause interference, CTIA said in a blog post last year.
10,000 Feet
Passengers’
use of technology and wireless services “is growing by leaps and
bounds” and should be expanded as long as it is safe, the
Consumer Electronics Association, an Arlington, Virginia-based trade group, said in its filing to the FAA last year.
Federal Communications Commission Chairman
Julius Genachowski agreed in a Dec. 6 letter to the FAA.
Broader
use of on-board electronics would help providers of approved aircraft
Wi-Fi services by letting passengers use them longer.
Gogo Inc. (GOGO), based in Itasca,
Illinois, says it has 82 percent of that market in
North America, and
Qualcomm Inc. (QCOM) on May 9 won permission from the FCC to proceed with a planned air-to-ground broadband service for Wi-Fi equipped planes.
The
FAA prohibits use of electronics while a plane is below 10,000 feet,
with the exception of portable recording devices, hearing aids, heart
pacemakers and electric shavers.
Once a flight gets above that
altitude, devices can be used in “airplane mode,” which blocks their
ability to broadcast radio signals, according to the FAA. There’s an
exception for devices that aircraft manufacturers or an airline
demonstrates are safe, such as laptops that connect to approved Wi-Fi
networks.
Inflight Wi-Fi
The potential risks from
personal electronic devices are increasing as the U.S. aviation system
transitions to satellite-based navigation, according to the FAA. In
order to improve efficiency, planes will fly closer together using GPS
technology.
As a result, interference from electronics “cannot be tolerated,” the agency said last year.
While
sticking with its prohibitions on use during some phases of flight, the
FAA starting in 2010 issued guidelines allowing broader use of personal
electronics.
Following techniques suggested by
RTCA Inc.,
a Washington-based non-profit that advises the FAA on technology,
airlines have been able to install Wi-Fi networks allowing passengers to
browse the Web in flight.
No Tolerance
Four in 10
airline passengers surveyed in December by groups including the CEA said
they want to be able to use electronic devices in all phases of flight.
Thirty percent of passengers in that same study said they’d
accidentally left on a device during a flight.
McCaskill, a
Missouri Democrat, has called for lifting restrictions on non-phone
devices such as the Kindle if passengers keep them in airplane mode,
Drew Pusateri, her spokesman, said in an interview.
The existing rules are “ridiculous,” she said in an interview.
“I
was aware from the research that’s been done that there has never been
an incident of a plane having problems because of someone having a
device on in the cabin,” she said.
The dangers from radio waves
interfering with electronic equipment has been known for decades. A fire
aboard the aircraft carrier USS Forrestal in 1967 killed 134 people,
when a rocket on a fighter jet accidentally fired after a radar beam
triggered an electronic malfunction, according to a 1995
NASA review.
GPS Useless
Restrictions
on U.S. commercial aircraft began in 1966 after research found some
portable radios interfered with navigation equipment, according to the
FAA’s request last year for comments on whether it should change
existing rules.
In one 2004 test, a now-discontinued
Samsung Electronics Co. (005930)wireless
phone model’s signal was powerful enough to blot out global-positioning
satellites, according to NASA. The device, which met all government
standards, was tested because a corporate flight department had
discovered the phone rendered a plane’s three GPS receivers useless,
NASA’s researchers reported.
While incidents haven’t led to any
commercial accidents and and are difficult to recreate afterward, they
continue to pile up. A log kept by the Montreal-based International Air
Transport Association airline trade group recorded 75 cases of suspected
interference from 2003 to 2009, Perry Flint, a spokesman for the group,
said in an interview.
Ghost Theories
Peter Bernard Ladkin, a professor of
computer networks at the University of Bielefeld in
Germany, compiled similar accounts from pilots in
Europe, he said in an interview.
“These
are serious, conscientious pilots,” Ladkin said. “They know what
they’re doing. They don’t subscribe to theories about ghosts or
something.”
Damaged devices have transmitted on frequencies they
weren’t designed for, according to David Carson, an associate technical
fellow at Boeing who has participated in industry evaluations of
electronics.
If those radio waves reach an antenna used for
navigation, communication or some other purpose, it may distort the
signal it’s supposed to receive.
Inflight Wi-Fi systems are safe
in part because devices connect to them at low power levels, according
to Carson, who was co-chairman of an RTCA panel that produced testing
standards.
Devices searching for a faraway connection, such as a
mobile phone trying to connect to a ground network in flight, send out
more powerful radio waves, he said.
Pilots’ IPads
Airlines such as Delta and
Alaska Air Group Inc. (ALK)
have used the FAA guidelines to allow their pilots to carry Apple iPads
to replace paper charts and manuals. McCaskill and others have used
that as an example of why passengers should be allowed to use tablet
computers during landing and takeoff.
One difference is that
airlines don’t purchase tablet models that use connections through
wireless phone networks. Similar devices used by passengers haven’t been
tested for safety in the passenger compartment, Carson said. Plus,
there’s no guarantee passengers will put the devices into airplane mode
or the devices haven’t been damaged, he said.
“Something a passenger brings in, you don’t know if it fell in a mud puddle or they put a bigger battery in,” he said.
The RTCA group recommended against allowing passengers to use devices during taxi, landing and takeoff, Carson said.
The
Association of Flight Attendants,
the U.S.’s largest union for those workers, told the FAA last year that
electronic devices should be stowed during those critical phases of
flight, just as bags and purses must be.
Any decision should be
based on science, not on politics or passengers’ desires to stay
connected, John Cox, a former airline pilot who is chief executive
officer of the Washington-based consulting firm, Safety Operating
Systems, said in an interview.
“The question is: Do we want to do aviation safety based on lack of testing and certification standards?” Cox said.
To contact the reporter on this story: Alan Levin in Washington at
alevin24@bloomberg.net
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