Editorial: Fliers, think before turning on electronics
20.05.12
•A regional jet was climbing 9,000 feet last May when the pilots' directional indicators suddenly went haywire, leading the airliner 4 miles off course. After the confused pilots asked passengers to make sure their electronics were off, the cockpit instruments returned to normal.
•As a flight was climbing out of Charlotte-Douglas airport in North Carolina , there was such a loud buzzing on the pilots' radios that they could barely hear controllers. The captain warned passengers that if they didn't turn off all devices, the plane would have to return to the airport. After "nearly the entire plane" checked their electronics, the noise stopped and the flight continued.
•The pilots of an airliner flying at nearly 300 mph toward Philadelphia suddenly got a warning on the instrument panel that they were about to collide with a plane a mile ahead of them. They made an emergency climb before controllers said their radar showed no plane there. A flight attendant later told the pilots she had caught a woman making a cellphone call to her daughter during the approach.
Source: USA TODAY