Nowadays travelers have numerous electronic devices with them during their flight. On my last trip to Italy, I used my IPad more for in-flight entertainment than what the airline had to offer. That being said, all airlines request passengers to turn all devices off during takeoff and landing. I noticed on my last flight that some people followed these directions, and others did not, opting to just put their device on silent mode or on airline mode. So I got to thinking, do we really have to turn our devices off? I mean, most planes even offer wifi now.

According to a May, 2016 article in Travel and Leisure, “It’s standard practice to be told by flight attendants to switch devices to airplane mode during transit; but what happens if you don’t follow directions? Unfortunately, the answer isn’t that clear…. “It’s not necessarily that a phone can bring down an airplane,” former Boeing engineer Kenny Kirchoff has said. “That’s not really the issue. The issue is interfering with the airplane and causing more work for the pilots during critical phases of flight. When they take off and when they land, those are phases of flight that require a high level of concentration by the pilots.” But, with the advancement of modern technology these risks are becoming more obsolete. In fact, in 2014 the European Aviation Safety Agency (Europe’s version of the FAA) said that electronic devices pose no safety risk.”

So what do we have to know? Here’s an interesting infographic created by trip.me to provide essential information about why we need to put away our electronic equipment.

So I’m going to switch my devices off during takeoff and landing, but then take it out and watch my favorite television shows (“Parks and Recreation” right now) and movies.

Ciao … THE GRAZIE GIRL