FAA wants to discuss testing electronics

WASHINGTON – The government is taking a tentative step toward making it easier for airlines to allow passengers to use personal electronic devices such as tablets, e-readers and music players during takeoffs and landings.

The Federal Aviation Administration said Monday it is “exploring ways to bring together all of the key stakeholders involved” – including airlines, aircraft manufacturers, consumer electronics makers, and flight attendant unions – to discuss whether there are practical ways to test devices to see if they are safe for passengers to use during critical phases of flight.

Technically, FAA rules already permit any airline to test specific makes and models to determine if they generate enough power that they could interfere with sensitive cockpit radios, navigation instruments and other critical equipment. But few airlines have done that kind of extensive testing because there are so many devices, and testing them all – or even many – isn’t practical.

Instead, the fallback position has been to comply with FAA rules requiring passengers to turn off all electronic devices while the aircraft’s altitude is below 10,000 feet.

Even if a device was tested and approved for use today, later iterations of the same machine might be different enough that they’d have to be tested again. Today’s Apple iPad, for example, isn’t the same as the original iPad developed three years ago.

Another concern is the “additive effects” of a planeload of 200 people using devices at once versus one passenger using a device, said Kenny Kirchoff, senior research and development engineer at Boeing Co.