FAA May Loosen In-Flight Rules on Electronics

Your in-flight entertainment options may be changing by year's end, as The New York Times reports that the Federal Aviation Administration hopes to announce by the end of they year that it will relax rules for reading devices—not mobile phones—during takeoff and landing.

Reports the Times: One member of [an FAA working group] and an official of the FAA, both of whom asked for anonymity because they were not allowed to speak publicly about internal discussions, said the agency was under tremendous pressure to let people use reading devices on planes, or to provide solid scientific evidence why they can't.

In an interview with the Times, Senator Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., said she planned to introduce legislation to force changes. She said she'd grown frustrated by the rules after learning that the FAA allows iPads as flight manuals in the cockpit and has given out devices to flight attendants.

"So it's OK to have iPads in the cockpit; it's OK for flight attendants—and they are not in a panic—yet it's not OK for the traveling public," she said. "A flying copy of 'War and Peace' is more dangerous than a Kindle."

Read the full Times story here.