US plan to ban pilots from using laptops, phones

After delaying for more than three years a bill to reauthorise the Federal Aviation Administration, the US Congress appears ready to adopt legislation that would also make several changes in the way airlines operate.

For example: An amendment to the bill could more than double the number of daily round-trip flights between the western US and Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, to 28 from 12. Long-distance flights into Reagan National have been limited because of noise concerns and an effort to shift more flights to Washington Dulles International Airport.

Airline officials expect nearly half the new flights to take off from Los Angeles and San Francisco.

Debate over how many flights to allow was among several issues that delayed adoption of the bill.

The bill also includes a provision pushed by Senator Al Franken to prohibit pilots from using cellphones, laptop computers and other personal electronic devices in the cockpit while flying a plane. The proposal was drafted after two Northwest pilots overshot a Minneapolis airport by 240 kilometres in 2009 because they were distracted by their laptops.

The bill would also give the FAA the green light to modernize the nation's air traffic control system, upgrading it from the World War II-era radar system to a GPS-based system that FAA officials say could reduce airline delays by as much as 20 per cent.

"In an industry like aviation, standing still or moving backward is not an option," FAA Administrator J. Randolph Babbitt recently told a congressional committee.

Among other changes, the legislation calls for a study on flight attendant fatigue. The study was requested by flight attendant unions long before a frustrated JetBlue Airways flight attendant argued with an unruly passenger, cursed that person over the intercom, deployed the plane's emergency chute and slid down it - beer in hand.

Congressional leaders hope the president will sign the bill by the end of March.

MCT