From SIMON GARDNERS
Unbeknown to most of the air-travelling public, British Airways bans
the use of passengers’ personal compact disc players on commercial flights.
Their comprehensive prohibition list includes ‘cellular telephones,
radio receivers as well as transmitters, television sets, compact disc players,
video cameras, video players, remote control toys, and all devices utilising
light emitting diode displays’.
British Airways tells me that this is not for the obvious social reasons
but because of supposed interference with flight deck compasses and warning
lights.
In a recent unsubstantiated ‘case’, an MD-80 aircraft was supposed to
have been rendered temporarily unhandleable after a young passenger started
listening to his portable CD player. Apparently portable tape players (like
the Walkman) are safe.
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While it is understandable that those devices with transmitters (such
as the cell phone) can cause problems, can any reader hazard a guess as
to what mechanism causes a low power portable ‘Discman’ CD player to interfere
with a plane?
Simon Gardner Leighton Buzzard, Bedfordshire
