It can be scary to witness a passenger break the rules on a plane, because flying is all about rules and safety. What actually happens if someone forgets to or worse, actively chooses not to flip that little switch?
We asked airline staffers about the basis of the safety step, and whether they can sense when a passenger is flouting the rules. In —after conferring with pilots, passengers, aviation manufacturers, and mobile tech representatives—the Federal Aviation Administration officially decreed that passengers could keep their phones on during flights, as long as they were set to airplane mode. There are also built-in expectations about how often these handoffs should happen not very , the speed of the user highway speeds at most , and your altitude somewhere near the ground.
Cellular use on a plane at cruising altitude breaks all three of these expectations. Simply put, calls in the sky may interfere with the proper functioning of this complex system — particularly if a couple hundred passengers all had their cellular radios on — such that users on the ground are affected.
So, for now, the Federal Communications Commission restricts cellular use on airplanes. That all sounds like a service issue, not a safety one. Likely, nothing. But there is a non-neglible risk that using your phone could interfere with critical systems on the plane. Although most modern phones no longer do this, GSM 2G phones were notorious for interfering with other electronic systems. Now, imagine this buzz being picked up by a sensitive navigation system. Specifically, those in the MHz range can interfere with unshielded cockpit instrumentation.
This is a particular issue on older aircraft. Newer planes are designed to deal with the huge amount of electronics the flying public takes onto airplanes. Airplanes are incredibly complex machines, filled with electronics and critical systems required to perform the modern miracle that is flight.
Given how many new phones come on the market each year , it would be challenging to test how each and every model might interfere with the systems on each aircraft in the commercial fleet worldwide.
Although consumer electronics, such as cell phones, are supposed to operate within bands of the electromagnetic spectrum away from aviation bands, Carson said technology doesn't always behave the way it's supposed to.
But, he said, during a flight, even smaller disturbances -- such as smoke alarms activating because of cell phone interference -- could have more serious consequences. And contrary to what most passengers think, it's the FCC — not the FAA — that implemented the cell phone ban in the first place. It's true that before an airline could allow cell phone use in-flight, it would have to prove to the FAA that it wouldn't interfere with the airplane systems.
But the FAA says the point is moot. Since , the FCC has banned the use of cell phones on airplanes because of potential interference with ground networks. When you use your cell phone in Times Square, for example, the phone searches for the closest cell towers and, assuming you're in a place with good coverage, it doesn't have to work too hard to complete a call.
But, when you use your phone on an airplane, thousands of feet above the cell towers and moving miles per hour, the phone and the network, essentially, get confused.
Too many cell towers and too many channels are available to a single phone at a given time. In addition to opening up the possibility for interrupted calls and other problems on the ground, the phone emits a stronger signal that both drains the battery and increases the possibility of interference with on-board equipment.
Technology like OnAir's uses a picocell to try to re-create a ground situation in air. The picocell acts like a mini cell tower that enables phones on the plane and towers on the ground to interact normally.
But despite technology that could address this outstanding network issue, the FCC stands by its ban. Additionally, he said, that when the FCC proposed lifting the ban in December , it was flooded with thousands of comments from individuals, companies and associations in favor of the ban.
In April , the FCC ultimately dropped the inquiry into lifting the ban, saying it was "premature" to decide because they didn't have enough technical information about interference issues. To his point, as more and more revenue-hungry U.
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