Business Class - First Class or the Faraday Cage?

"A DC-10 flying into Kennedy Airport suddenly flew off course and almost crashed because a passenger's compact disc player interfered with the plane's control system. The incident may cause airlines to limit the electronic gadgetry passengers can bring on board." - Time What is the scary part of the above paragraph? Is it "almost crashed?" Are we worried about a DC-10 full of innocent people going down like a flaming cattle car? In a word, no. Do we really care that a "compact disc player interfered with the plane's control system?" Nope. You know goddamn well what the scary part is - "may cause airlines to limit the electronic gadgetry passengers can bring on board." Oh, man. We can't allow this to happen. We just can't. Are our laptops "gadgetry?" Cellular phones are "gadgetry" and we haven't been able to use them for a while but they don't work at cruising altitude anyway. AM/FM radios and radio controlled gadgets can't be used. (I never even thought of using a radio controlled toy on an airplane, but now that they say I can't, I'm guessing it's way fun.) Sure they're going to allow pacemakers, that's because I don't have one yet. But what about computers? Well, they're thinking about it. If I were stark raving bonkers like Oliver Stone, I know what I'd be thinking right now: I'd be thinking that the F.A.A. is doing this to get Penn Jillette. They've been mad at me since I wrote one of my first columns about airport security. I didn't like us wasting our time turning on our computers at the metal detectors. It didn't prove anything. So I suggested that we all create autoexec.bats to print to screen: ARMING . . . . . . ARMED 17 Seconds to detonation Counting . . . Someone claiming to be from the F.A.A. called and threatened the receptionist. The cheeses freaked a little. I wasn't worried (I have nerves of steel and Ziff/Davis has higher visibility for the Feds and deeper pockets for civil). I felt the First Amendment was on my side. (I know Howard Stern and now little Ms Tipper knows someone in the White House personally. Who am I kidding?) The so-called "F.A.A." shut up when PCC promised they would never put "terrorist information" on their back page again. (The guy who gave his word moved to another mag.) If I were Ollie, I'd know that the Feds killed a good-looking president just so little Mr. Stone would have to go to Viet Nam, so why wouldn't they ban computers on planes just to hobble some back page guy. My good buddies at the F.A.A. started claiming that pilots are telling them all sorts of stories of Nintendos, and CD players (blaring Judas Priest, no doubt - let's get those boys back in court) are throwing the circuitry that picks up radio signals from the VOR (visual omni-range) network out of wack. They say it would never have hurt a good old airplane but the new ones are more sensitive. It wouldn't cross their mind to design airplanes that couldn't be sabotaged by Super Mario Brothers. Hell, how about a Faraday cage where the smoking section used to be? ("Aft Faraday is occupied?") No way, they want to ban computers. Well, their vile conspiracy will work. I write most of these columns on airplanes and if they stop me from doing that, I won't be able to get the back page written. It'll be fine for you, columnists that can mention "Uma Thurman" and "computer" in 650 words are a dime a dozen. But, please remember while you're enjoying the new back page, that I'm watching the edited version of "Honeymoon in Vegas" - again.