[dmarquis]

The method used in that article is just counting flight incidents in some historical data that may possibly have been caused by interference. The evidence that consumer electronics are the cause is just anecdotal:

"In one telling incident, a flight crew stated that a 30-degree navigation error was immediately corrected after a passenger turned off a DVD player and that the error reoccurred when the curious crew asked the passenger to switch the player on again."

[politician]

After a 30-degree navigation error was corrected by turning off a DVD player, would the pilot seriously endanger the aircraft by asking the passenger to turn it on again to test? Anecdotal, and probably completely false.

[ceejayoz]

> After a 30-degree navigation error was corrected by turning off a DVD player, would the pilot seriously endanger the aircraft by asking the passenger to turn it on again to test?

No?

1. It was already demonstrated that turning it off fixed it. If you see the instruments goof up again, you tell the guy to turn the player back off.

2. Pilots are extensively trained to deal with equipment failures, including total loss of power and instruments.

[politician]

I don't buy it. Ostensibly, this is a commercial flight where lives are at stake, so I strongly doubt that absent FAA direction the pilot requested this test.

It was already demonstrated that turning it off fixed it. If you see the instruments goof up again, you tell the guy to turn the player back off.

It's unclear from the account whether this was an instrument error or an actual flight path deviation. The latter being a more serious and unpredictable error. Who in their right mind would want to repro this given the unknowns?

Pilots are extensively trained to deal with equipment failures, including total loss of power and instruments.

Pilots also operate in an environment of substantial regulation where I'm sure a policy exists for investigation of operational interference. I suspect this policy is in line with the FAA's stance that "avoidable interference is unacceptable" and certainly this incident describes an avoidable interference.

I don't see any reason to retract my position that this story is likely a myth.

EDIT: My position depends on a number of assumptions that may be faulty: that this incident took place in the USA, within the last decade, on a plane operated by a significant carrier.

[ceejayoz]

You can feel the story is a myth, but it remains hard to argue that it'd "seriously endanger the aircraft" by doing what was described in the story.

[sjwright]

If a portable DVD player (which presumably doesn't contain any transmitting radios) causes a 30-degree navigation error, the problem is with the aircraft, PERIOD. FULL STOP.