Comments on: Episode 49: Cell Phones on a Plane

By: Zack

Zack — Tue, 17 Aug 2010 19:21:44 +0000

My biggest question is why do we rely on navigation technologies that can be so easily interrupted? Why not use something else that you can’t screw up with consumer electronics?

By: kay

kay — Tue, 03 Aug 2010 01:02:15 +0000

I accidentally left my mobile on on a flight to USA and when I arrived it had no signal and wouldn’t work. It was not blocked so I think that the aircraft or satellite transmitters had actually knocked it out.It no longer works…

By: Layla

Layla — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 22:32:51 +0000

Don’t care. Big giant pile of don’t care. I do care about the fact that if I have to sit next to you for eleven hours on a transatlantic, I do NOT want to be subject to all of your phone conversations. Even using a headset, you still have to make those annoying mouth noises while I am quietly saying my prayers that the pressurized aluminium tube we are hurdling through the sky in doesn’t drop out of the sky. (Which I do regardless of the presence or absence of cell phones.) Your iPhone has an Airplane mode. Use it, take a break from the world. Watch a movie, and fall asleep.

Seriously, I always attributed that rule a matter of enforced politeness. Not anything technical.

By: Captbilly

Captbilly — Thu, 24 Jun 2010 22:02:24 +0000

Jason: I am afraid that you are incorrect about your assertion that GPS units transmit to the satellite. I have been flying commercial and military aircraft for 30 years. I am also a physicist and electrical and mechanical engineer, and I have been dealing with GPS since the 1980s. The GPS units that people carry in their cars, cell phones, etc. have no capability to transmit. The receivers receive very weak signals from many satellites and calculate their position by timing how long the signal takes to arrive from each satellite. Very accurate clocks are required, and very high speed timers, to get accuracy down to as low a under a meter for unassisted GPS.

Some very specialized GPS units used for surveying actually do transmit, however not to the satellites. These units use a known position of one or more ground station (often set up by the surveyor) to correct the errors in the GPS signal from the satellite. Even WAAS receivers use this technique, but the typical WAAS receiver is still only a receiver. The WAAS GPS system uses permanent stations that transmit an additional signal to your receiver to provide corrections to the GPS satellite signal.

I think the bottom line here is pretty obvious; If it was actually possible for a cell phone to interfere with important comm or nav information on an airplane the FAA would not allow you to carry one on the plane. I don’t think that most people even know how to actually turn their phone off (many people think it is off when the screen is blank), and even I have forgotten to turn mine off more often than not. If this was a real problem then we would have incidents all the time, and we don’t.

By: Greenman

Greenman — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 20:52:01 +0000

I forgot to turn my phone off once & it rang in the middle of a cross country flight. Where the phone would usually display my carrier’s name or roam, it said “Emergency”. I decided not to answer it.

By: Skeptic

Skeptic — Wed, 19 May 2010 20:02:17 +0000

I don’t have any evidence either way, but I must admit that I find it very very very odd that the FAA would think there is a risk with cell phone use and then only “suggest” that we don’t use them on a flight.
I can’t get on board with toothpaste and toenail clippers, yet my cell phone affects the plane navigation system and they politely ask me not to use it?????
I’m pretty sure if there was empirical evidence, then cell phones would be clearly prohibited.

By: Bertie the Bunyip

Bertie the Bunyip — Sun, 28 Mar 2010 16:05:02 +0000

Here’s the problem. they do interfere with aircraft radios. For starters, you can hear that charactrsitc clicking in your headset, like you do when you have the cellphone active near a TV or radio, and they tend to mess with the transponders, causing them to respond to a non-existent interrrogation from a ground station.
Not an avionics engineer, but this is what thye tell me the prob is.

By: Lonnie

Lonnie — Sun, 24 Jan 2010 07:23:02 +0000

Hello all. I have some experience with this. I have worked on many different types of aircraft. Some believe that the signal must match a certain frequency. I am here to tell you that the only thing that needs to happen is that an aircraft internal signal be ‘disturbed’. This could affect numerous signals; autopilot or navigation. Some believe that it has something to do with communications. I know that has had some affect, but it is only a confusing matter, not a direct flight effect. Look up a Saab 340 crash in the 1999-2000 range in Europe. The pilots were on course and then suddenly off course. A cell call was made shortly after take-off and then crashed. The pilots were blamed, but they, during conversations, had no idea that their instumentation was being affected and the autopilot was just following the distorded signal that was being transmitted to the computer.

Anyhow, I wish everyone would please cut the crap about cell phone usage monopoly. I have worked for airlines and that is a hassle more than a profit. Does anyone have any idea how much it costs to approve an onboard phone system? It is very expensive. They only want to capture the installation and approval costs.

By: Damo

Damo — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 12:23:15 +0000

Thanks Heidi and Ryan for clearing it up. So i guess it’s not a death sentence if someone uses a cell phone but it’s still bad for the pilots and a good precaution to take. Cheers

By: ryan

ryan — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 19:09:35 +0000

i’m a student pilot and even i agree with Heidi that is the real reason cell phones are turned off. I used to be the guy who was annoyed to be told to turn his cell off at takeoff/landing. Now i’m the pilot whose annoyed that he cant hear ATC or flight deck comm due to cellular interferance from my passengers(friends). It will make a overpowering squeltching noise over all communications and it makes communcation with ATC next to impossible.