Why are cell phones not allowed on airplanes?

Question

People obviously can and do use cell phones on airplanes. I've seen people do it. So what is the issue?

Answer 1

I'm a commercial pilot by trade and was dubious about the effects of phones - studies here in Australia said this and that and never seemed to decide - although it was said often that GPS in particular can be effected.

So while the aircraft was serviced myself and a co-pilot tested phones in close quarters to the equipment...had interesting results.

Communications equipment is generally unaffected. This is because most Comms are on frequencies in the VHF and HF radio bands - far too low for mobile interference. Also, radio-signal navigation aids that provide distance and bearing were unaffected - they run in the VHF, MF bands and sometimes UHF.

However radar operates in the high end at SHF (super high frequency) and can be touched by phones interference at times - most planes have a "transponder" which sends a radar pulse when picked up by a radar scan - this pulse just gives a strong identifying "paint" on the screen as opposed to the weak return of basic radar. However this pulse can become confused and distorted by phones - we didn't discover this but have seen studies in it.

GPS however has shocking effects. The GPS was set up with a north destination about 200 miles away programmed. On comes the phone - and the destination suddenly ended up south east approximately 75 miles away! Not nice!

Other jet systems such as INS (inertial navigation, which uses balanced gyros) won't be affected though - they don't rely on radio aids.

So yes...mobile or cell phones do have an effect and yes...they are allowed but generally banned.

I let people carry them on my flights but refuse to let them be turned on. No meeting is that important, sorry.

Answer 2

Many of the prior answers addressed the communications interference issue, and rightly so. However, communications experts in USA and elsewhere are in the process of working those bugs out; so the solution is coming soon.

In fact, there are two airlines in Europe (British Midland Airways in UK and TAP Air Portugal) that are now testing full in-flight service, and they expect to allow full operation in late 2006.

There's another, bigger problem: if you allow cell phones on airlines, then it will be much easier for terrorists to use those devices as remote triggers to detonate bombs on aircraft. Yes, I know they can already use other devices to detonate bombs, as we all know, but a cell phone is much easier. Why make mass murder easier for terrorists?

The issue comes down to this: how will authorities guarantee absolutely that a terrorist will never be able to use a cell phone to blow up an aircraft?

It's bad enough that terroists have already used cell phones as remote bomb triggers in Madrid, Iraq and elsewhere.

Does anybody really want to see that happen at 10,000 meters in the air? On a train or bus, some will die; on an aircraft, everybody dies.

See my prior question I posed, earlier today.

Answer 3

Although all the cell phones are FCC certified for unwanted out of band Radio Signal radiation, but there is a good chance that most of them actually do radiate unwanted signals. (You ask why? B/c FCC just checks one hand pick phone and grant the certification base on that, later on if the production phones fail nobody will check them and go to the market radiating unwanted signals.) These signals could interfere with the Airplane’s equipments and cause a fatal accident.

Answer 4

Cell phone use the same wave signals that the pilot uses to communicate with the airport. That is the reason why FCC does not allow cell phone. It is for the safety of the passengers as well as for the pilots.
The other people using the cellular phones are puting your life and others in jeopardy.

Answer 5

Commercial aircraft electronics are designed to survive a lightning strike. Also if a $100.00 cell phone doesn't interfere with another $100.00 cell phone 2 feet apart I don't see it being able to interfere with a $50,000.00 communications suite.
Electronics notwithstanding, cell phones should be banned in any and all confined areas including (especially) airplanes.

Answer 6

The signals from the cell phone can cause the airplane's navigation system to go on the fritz..haha, fritz is a funny word

Answer 7

Because you will annoy all the other passengers who are glad to be on a plane because it is the only place in the world where no one is on the phone. Then a fistfight will break out and the plane will be forced to make an emergency landing and take everyone to jail.

:)

Seriously, I hate people who are glued to their cellphones and I will cry on the day they're allowed in flight.

Answer 8

The digital cell phone interfere's with the navigation of the aircraft… You could use the old analogue phones and I still do when I'm flying my aircraft as it has no effect on it at all.. But most countries don’t still have the old analogue systems… It’s still the best and clearest but it limited to voice mostly

Answer 9

They supposedly screw up the delicate equipment in the plane. This is of course nonsense. Hospitals do the same. I think they just don't want to tell people to keep it down.

Mythbusters tried to do a segment on this. For the most part they showed it was nonsense.

Answer 10

The FAA has stated that it interferes with the planes navigational instruments and could cause them to give faulty readings, hence endangering the crew and passengers of the plane.