SAFETY ON AIRPLANES

1. Have you thought about safety measures on airplanes and why they are being so strictly implemented?

2. Here is a short review on a Harvard Business Review article by Alexandra Samuel. The article is about ‘listening to your customers when they disagree’. The article focuses on whether or not to allow the customers to use their cell phones during traveling on planes. Taking into consideration the strict procedures, rules and regulations made by various aviation companies on the usage of electronic devices on board aircrafts, the mobile or cell phone usage problem is not a concern to be so much debated.

3. Educated or not, the global principle practiced in commercial airplanes is to not use any electronic devices on board, unless with special permissions granted by the authorities. Excluding private aircrafts, during the safety briefing in any commercial airplane, it is clearly mentioned by FAA to switch off the cell phones and other electronic devices during take-offs and landings.

4. This indicates that airlines have more responsibility than the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), and the ultimate responsibility lies on the airline Managers for any event that takes place in their airplanes whilst on the ground as well as in air.

5. Electronic devices can be allowed in airplane flights. When considering cell phones the cell signal should be disabled (airplane mode to be activated). Since the majority of the people believe that, it can be a security threat. During takeoffs and landings, the prohibition of the use of all electronic devices is to be implemented as a safety measure of the aircraft.

6. Hence, there is a divide within the public and there can be no middle ground on this issue. Either it should be banned or approved with particular restrictions like ‘no calls allowed’. The article has become an important eye opener for airline industry and not only in USA but to other countries as well since, the same issue is being evaluated. Having said this, it might well be worth considering to review what International preparatory measures are in place to resolve the issue at hand and adopt the same so as to unanimously implement the same to all airlines irrespective of which country the airline belongs to.

7. The judgment on the security and safety factor of the aircraft is important to look back to the history of the issue that the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) had asked the Radio Technical Commission for Aeronautics (RTCA), an independent industry standards organization, to study the issue of electronic devices on airplanes in 1992. The RTCA had not found any interference and eventually recommended allowing the use of laptops, gaming devices and music players. Nevertheless, it has been suggested by RTCA on the precaution of banning the use of any and all devices “during the critical takeoff and landing phases” (Hsu, J. 2009). This explains that there is a safety factor during the aforementioned phases.