Quote:
Originally Posted by tubemonkey
Again, if these devices truly posed a safety risk, the FAA would ban them. After all, what guarantee does the flight crew have that all devices have been turned off?
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It's down to statistics. While telling passengers to turn off devices doesn't ensure that they are all turned off, it seems fair to assume that it will significantly reduce the number of devices which are still on.
We have historical evidence to show that the current arrangement (where all are asked to be turned off and, presumably, most but not all are) yields an acceptable level of risk (i.e. the rate of accidents is still acceptably low). We have no such evidence about what would happen if there was freedom to use whatever gadget you wanted at whatever time.
Personally, if we're considering changing the policy from one which we have evidence is safe to one with no such evidence, I'd rather that was done once scientific tests have shown it to be safe.
/JB