I wrote that it was happening soon, and it’s already begun: on Friday, November 1st, 2013 JetBlue 2302, which flew from JFK to Buffalo, became the first flight to allow passengers to use personal electronic devices at any time they were onboard, from gate to gate.
This is result of months of investigations by the FAA into whether portable electronics, from mobile phones and handheld games to tablets and laptops posed any kind of risk of interference with avionics and other vital systems on airplanes. They released guidelines on Thursday stating that airlines should conduct “carrier-defined PED [personal electronic device] testing” to make sure that electronic frequencies don’t cause any such interference. JetBlue 2302 was declared ready to go, and Delta has announced that all 191 planes in their fleet have passed such an inspection.
Here’s some video shot on JetBlue 2302:
One reply on “JetBlue 2302: The first flight to allow gate-to-gate use of personal electronic devices”
[…] Delta are most certainly not against the use of portable electronics throughout the flight. Along with JetBlue, they were one of the first airlines to get their fleet certified for gate-to-gat… They still request that larger, heavier electronics, such as laptops, be stowed during takeoff and […]