I think the rule is anything electronic must be switched off for takeoff and landing. Once they turn off the seatbelt sign after takeoff you can pull out your toys and turn them on (with exceptions for anything that transmits). I guess they just ignore digital watches and pacemakers for everyone's convenience.
I read some stats a while back that assumed one person in 1000 forgot to turn their phone of on US flights. That means that something like 25000 flights per year in the US have a live phone on board. So far not one single incident has been attributed to a phone causing a problem, so I'm skeptical that any of this is a real problem. Surely Al Queda would be onto this if it were? Or maybe they are.
I'm imagining a lot of frustrated wannabe bombers taking regular flights and surreptitiously leaving their phones etc switched on.
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