Well, not snakes, but mobile phones. They’re here… The European Air Safety Agency has greenlighted their use in flight, and the installation of on-board base stations has resolved navigational worries. Ofcom has published a proposal that would allow usage above 3,000 metres.

Our wiki covered some of the issues involved here.

Given that the most widely publicized incident regarding previous use of mobile telephony in commercial aircraft comes from September 11, when passengers phoned emergency services, said tearful goodbyes to their family, and provided a running commentary on events (all without interfering with the plane’s navigational systems), the technical and information assurance issues, while not trivial, do not seem to be too much of an obstacle to airborne use of commercial mobile services (although I still am concerned about how future location-based services will be managed).

But the issues are more likely to be social. As the reporter for icBirmingham noted in the story linked above, “I personally think allowing the use of mobile phones on aeroplanes is only a good idea if people are encouraged to step outside the aircraft when making and receiving calls.”