Updated October 1, 2013, 10:09 p.m. ET
By ANDY PASZTOR And JACK NICAS
The Wall Street Journal
An FAA advisory committee has concluded passengers can safely use hand-held electronic devices, including those connected to onboard Wi-Fi systems, during all portions of flights on nearly all U.S. airliners, according to one of the group's leaders.
The committee's report and its more than two dozen recommendations, which haven't yet been released by the Federal Aviation Administration, go further than industry officials previously suggested in recommending lifting current restrictions on such devices under 10,000 feet.
The panel determined that no matter what applications the devices are running or what wireless-transmission mode they are in, "the vast majority" of aircraft "are going to be just fine" from a safety standpoint, according to a senior Amazon.com Inc. official who headed the group's technical subcommittee.
Nearly all airline fleets "already have been so dramatically improved and aircraft are so resilient" to electronic interference, according to Paul Misener, Amazon's vice president of global public policy, that the committee concluded they would be safe for "gate to gate use" of such devices.
Only normal, ground-based cellular connections—whether used for voice or data—should remain off-limits, according to the committee's recommendations. That isn't due to safety concerns, but because of long-standing Federal Communications Commission rules prohibiting airborne cellular service. Those rules, in turn, stem from concerns about interfering with communications systems on the ground. Mr. Misener said the committee urged the FAA to work with the FCC to reassess those restrictions.
If the FAA follows the committee's recommendations, fliers could potentially access email and the Internet during all phases of flight—but only through an airline's onboard Wi-Fi system, which usually requires a fee to use, and not through their own cellular data service.
In an interview, Mr. Misener also said the panel ended up endorsing a relatively simple system for airlines to demonstrate to the FAA that passenger devices wouldn't interfere with cockpit instruments on their planes. That proposed system, which hasn't previously come to light, would be largely based on reassessing earlier test results, rather than running a battery of new tests based on new standards.
Another committee member confirmed that the report doesn't recommend any restrictions on using onboard Wi-Fi below 10,000 feet. Instead, the recommendations note that aircraft already equipped with such Wi-Fi systems, or authorized to have them, should be subjected to simpler testing—or no testing at all—for portable-electronic devices. That is because they've already been subjected to rigorous testing for the Wi-Fi hardware, according to both panel members
The vast majority of commercial aircraft types used in the U.S. have been approved to handle onboard Wi-Fi systems. Almost 60% of commercial passenger aircraft in the U.S. are connected, not counting commuter jets, according to a recent Wall Street Journal survey of U.S. carriers. By the end of 2015, airlines plan to have more than 85% of their mainline aircraft connected.
For the foreseeable future, however, below 10,000 feet flight attendants may face the new challenge of determining whether phones or other devices had their cellular connections disabled, often known as "airplane mode." Mr. Misener and industry officials predicted this could pose a thorny enforcement issue, but they said if passengers widely ignored instructions from flight attendants it wouldn't present a significant safety hazard.
The fate of the recommendations is uncertain.
The FAA, which has been under pressure from lawmakers, passengers and other groups to take swift action, still has the final say in deciding what changes will be implemented. FAA officials have declined to comment on the recommendations, except to say they will study them and then decide on next steps.
Mr. Misener said the committee effectively determined there are no major safety impediments to allowing unlimited use of tablets, e-readers and other hand-held devices from the beginning to the end of flights. Among the rare exceptions: cases when pilots need to use complex instrument-landing systems in low visibility or poor weather conditions. In those cases pilots should have the authority to ask passengers to turn off devices, according to the consensus recommendations adopted by the committee.
Even when those more-advanced landing aids are used, Mr. Misener said, airlines can alleviate safety concerns by conducting extra tests on their fleets.
Amazon, which markets a variety of e-readers and other electronic devices, previously ran some of its own safety tests and for years has championed lifting FAA limits on hand-held devices. The sweeping recommendations represent an important victory for the company and others who have argued that current rules are based on outmoded technical and regulatory assumptions.
"Our customers have been telling us they don't understand" the reasons behind the ban on using devices during takeoffs and landings, according to Mr. Misener. Based on the consensus view of experts on the committee, the Amazon official said "we can rest assured" that gate-to-gate use of hand-held electronic devices—whether for data or entertainment stored on the device itself or to access the Web—doesn't pose a threat to passengers.
Along with other companies and industry groups, Amazon is urging the FAA to act quickly, perhaps by the end of the year. "Our assumption is it's not years, but months," according to Mr. Misener.
Despite the committee's conclusions, though, it appears many connected aircraft aren't set up to offer in-flight Internet below 10,000 feet anyway. Gogo Inc., the largest inflight-Internet provider in the U.S., said its Wi-Fi systems aren't optimized for service below 10,000 feet, in part because Gogo relies on cellular towers on the ground for its connection. Gogo provides in-flight Wi-Fi for about three-quarters of the roughly 2,100 connected commercial aircraft in the U.S., including those at Delta Air Lines Inc., Virgin America Inc., US Airways Group Inc. and AMR Corp.'s American Airlines.
However, the three other inflight-Internet providers in the U.S. said their systems function at all phases of flight, partly because they use satellites for their connections. These providers said they currently switch off the connection below 10,000 feet because of current FAA restrictions.
These companies include Panasonic Avionics Corp., which provides Wi-Fi to United Continental Holdings Inc., and Global Eagle Entertainment Inc., the provider to Southwest Airlines Co. "It works in all phases of flight including when the plane is on the ground," said John Guidon, Global Eagle's chief technology officer. But, he added, "normally we have restrictions in place for passenger access in order to comply with existing regulations."
JetBlue Airways Corp., which provides its own Wi-Fi through a subsidiary, said its system also functions below 10,000 feet, though the service works best at cruising altitude. "We'd only make that service available [below 10,000 feet] if it's proven safe," JetBlue spokeswoman Jenny Dervin said. If the FAA approved the use of devices and Wi-Fi below 10,000 feet, she said, "we'd love to provide that service to our customers."
According to Mr. Misener, the advisory group urged the FAA to continue requiring full-size laptops to be stowed during takeoffs and landings out of concern that such heavy devices could injure passengers in the event of turbulence or sudden maneuvers.
Regardless of the size of the devices, it's not clear that all airlines would embrace the chance to provide connectivity during all phases of flight. Last week, one big U.S. carrier said it would look closely at whether to allow Wi-Fi below 10,000 feet to ensure that passengers wouldn't be distracted from paying attention to instructions from attendants and from getting ready for takeoffs and landings.
Henry Harteveldt, a travel-industry analyst, said it would amount to a "partial victory" if the FAA approved new rules allowing only devices not connected to the Internet to be used below 10,000 feet.
But if the FAA opts to approve Wi-Fi during takeoffs and landings, "that's really what the traveler wants," he said. "Using the Web from the moment they sit down—that's ultimately the Holy Grail."
Under today's rules, the FAA offers airliners the option of conducting individual tests on specific combinations of devices and aircraft models to demonstrate resistance to electronic interference during critical takeoff and landing phases. But in practice, airlines have shunned that option as impractical and instead, they have embrace a blanket prohibition against turning on any hand-held device below 10,000 feet. But now, according to Mr. Misener, the committee has laid out a relatively painless path so "airlines may make these assessments" on their own, and present the data for FAA sign-offs.
The Consumer Electronics Association, which represents more than 2,000 companies and had a representative on the advisory panel, said it supports allowing passengers, with limited exceptions, "to use typical handheld or lightweight electronic devices" at all altitudes. "We now urge the FAA's immediate review, consideration and pursuit" of those recommendations, the trade group said. It also said recent research it participated in showed that nearly 70% of passengers who brought an electronic device onboard used it at some point during the flight.
Source: http://online.wsj.com
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