You may soon be able to use your iPhone (AAPL) or Kindle (AMZN) at whole lot longer on the airplane.
A Federal Aviation Administration advisory panel is recommending that passengers be allowed to use their smartphones, tablets, e-readers and other wireless devices during takeoff and landing — and the proposed guideline is expected to become reality.
Some of the devices would, however, need to be in “airplane mode.”
Downloading data, surfing the Web and talking on the phone would still be prohibited. But people could still read e-books, listen to music, watch movies, play games and do work.
The 28-member committee agreed on the recommendations during a closed-door meeting [and] … recommendations will be included in a report to be delivered to the FAA early next week.
The agency created the committee, put several of its employees on the panel and was closely involved in the deliberations, so it’s expected that all or most of the recommendations will be implemented.
“We’ve been fighting for our customers on this issue for years – testing an airplane packed full of Kindles, working with the FAA, and serving as the device manufacturer on this committee,” Amazon spokesman Drew Herdener said in a press statement. “This is a big win for customers and, frankly, it’s about time.”
It’s unclear how long implementation of such a proposal would take.
