New Delhi: You will soon be able to use your
mobile phone after your aircraft has landed and is taxiing
towards the parking bay.
This will be made possible only after a new rule, aimed
at relaxing the present procedures a bit, is adopted by the
government.
Currently, mobile phones can be used only when the doors
of an aircraft are open, either before take-off or after
landing and parking.
Under this draft rule, a pilot can permit the use of
mobile phones inside the aircraft after it has "landed and
cleared the active runway", that is before it has parked and
the doors have been opened.
But the new rule makes it clear that a pilot would not
permit the use of cellphones if "the landing takes place in
low visibility conditions".
The rule also makes it clear that "an aircraft shall be
deemed to be in flight when all its external doors are closed
following embarkation until the moment when any such door is
opened for disembarkation".
Government has sought objections or suggestions from the
public on this draft rule by the middle of August.
Once the rule is adopted, it would form part of Aircraft
Rules of 1937, which govern the entire gamut of civil aviation
procedures in the country.
PTI
