The Tech Unfriendly Skies

Warning this is a killjoy post - do not read it if you are about to leave for the airport.

So on a Southwest flight last week, I am told by the flight attendant - cannot turn GPS on. It says so in the airline magazine. And I go he has no clue what he is talking about - I turn it on just about every long SW flight. Sure enough the magazine now puts it on the "never allowed" list. So, I ask the pilot on the way out why suddenly SW has changed course when several competitors are introducing Wi-Fly. And all he can muster is they have commercial grade equipment and passengers do not.

So on flight back I am seated next to a SW pilot and I ask him. And he says the FAA mandated it in the last few months. So I check on my PDA's browser and cannot find anything. The FAA has in past said it is each individual airlines decision. And the pilot goes - call our ops - they will give you the skinny. Could be security - though I am not sure what harm a receive only GPS unit does.

Then the pilot and I start discussing the new TSA limitations on lithium batteries.  And he rolls his eyes about the confusion this will cause with the average TSA employee, when most do not even know the law about 3.4, not 3 oz of fluids and gels. Then he proceeds to tell me there is likely to be a new ruling that laptops cannot be stored in the seat back anymore. Heating issues? No, apparently in a hard landing a passenger's laptop flew off and hit in the head. So, everyone else will be precluded from doing so for their safety...

Then I read yesterday this USA Today story on anti-missile defense on commercial flights. And this reassuring - not - comment from an American spokesman " "When you look at the cost benefit, it would be an extremely expensive proposition, and in the end, is it really going to work?""

And to cap the week, fellow EI Zoli Erdos forwards this Wired magazine article on a potential hacking risk on Boeing's new 787.

Now as I watch John Madden on NBC, I am jealous he has not flown since 1979.