The debate over the ability of the human mind to use personal electronic devices while operating various modes of transportation has a clear outcome: We can't.

There are too many incidents in automobiles, buses, trains and airplanes that indicate that human beings cannot talk on phones while driving, let alone using devices with keyboards and reading text messages.

But in the case of jetliners, the issue adds to the basic question of safety the idea of respect, professionalism and a basic care for the quality of craft that passengers should expect from professional pilots.

When Northwest Flight 188 flew past Minneapolis, it was not only a safety breach but a breach of faith.

Congress is beginning to introduce bills that would ban laptops, DVD players, MP3 players and other devices from use in the cockpit. We would say it is essential to tread carefully.

The cockpit of a modern airliner is a highly automated place, one in which the functions of the pilot are as often related to programming and interpretation of data as they are to the basic mechanics of climbing, turning, taking off and landing an airplane. As such, there is a definite bit of human-machine multitasking that is naturally taking place. There also are times where flight planning, weather monitoring, airport charts and other items vital to maintaining a flight are kept or backed up on a laptop.

What happened on Flight 188 wasn't a momentary lapse of reason, a split-second choice of inattentiveness that led to an accident. Rather, it was a willful and intentional split from the duty of the pilots to keep up with their computer-driven, automated jetliner. The plane knew where it was and what it was doing. Its human attendants didn't bother to monitor what the plane was telling them.

Further, they didn't bother to listen to other humans inquiring about their whereabouts.

No amount of rules, regulations or government intrusion into the cockpit will affect a basic change in some pilots, the ones who choose to be unprofessional and fail to pay attention to their aircraft.

A ban on personal electronics will probably only serve as a reminder to the vast majority of pilots who operate with the care, skill and mental attitude one would expect of a professional. It will inconvenience those pilots while failing to stop the rotten attitude of others.

Instead, we'd advocate an immediate requirement to install the two-hour flight voice recorders as well as video flight recorders in all commercial cockpits. That would be a better way to keep all pilots honest.