  Fortunately for those who value at least peace and quiet when
crammed in an airline seat, the FCC is in no hurry to relax its
ban. However, regulators are finally thinking of permitting the
use, during take off and landing, of other sorts of electronic
equipment currently forbidden, except when the plane is in level
flight. Understanding why this change is possible illuminates a
common misconception about what it is that means mobile phones
and aircraft do not mix. For the ban exists not (as the public
is often led to believe) because mobiles disrupt an aircraft’s
sensitive avionics, but rather to stop them playing havoc with
the phone companies' receiving equipment on the ground that is
trying to handle their calls.  In theory, any piece of electical
equipment might interfere with a plane's GPS navigation
equipment, VHF omnidirectional range/locators and instrument-
landing system. Even gizmos that are not supposed to, such as
audio players and video-game machines, may emit spurious radio-
frequency energy.