How many airplanes have crashed due to cell phone use interferring will navigation. I say zero.?

Question

I believe it is to reduce annoying talking by customers.

Answer 1

you are correct! the answer is zero!

Answer 2

Your correct. Exactly zero!

Actually the airlines are scrambling to deploy a system that will allow your cell phone to work in flight. They don't work once your about 5,000 feet or so above ground level.

The primary motivator was the Airphone service. Got to protect that $10.00 a minute cash cow and any price. Even if the reason is BS!

The self-proclaimed "pilots" who claim that it causes buzzing in their headsets should turn THEIR cell phones off when using the radio. If the cell phone is right NEXT to the radio, there might be some buzzing. If you're more than a couple of feet away, it does absolutely NOTHING to interfere with communications or navigation.

Answer 3

I heard years ago when the cellphone system was new, that the speed of the aircraft, crossing cell boundaries at maybe 5 - 6 per minute, overwhelmed the cell system's primitive routing computers, causing the network to fail. This is why the law was passed in the UK.
I suppose the microwaves from a phone could possibly confuse a radar altimeter in some circumstances.

Answer 4

It's never been much of an issue about interference in the states, as Boston said previously, it was more about the Airfone service.

However, in Europe, in the early to mid 90's it was an issue of intereference. Europe used, and still uses, a slightly different cellular system than ours here in the U.S. because of this, take-offs and landings were being interefered with. Specifically in Germany. On a few occasions in 1995, about 3-4 aircraft executed a missed approach on final due to their ILS gauges going out of control on final. It was discovered that a passenger(s) on each of those flights were using their cellphone (handy, for you Europeans!) Thus the ban was enforced in Europe.

Answer 5

The answer is zero. However, there is a danger because every cell phone puts out slightly different wavelengths of energy, and there's always a potential that one of those wavelengths could get past the anti-interference coatings that are applied to wires in aircraft.

Also, there's the potential that SwissAir flight 88's crash was contributed to by cell phone text messaging.

Answer 6

Zero aircraft have ever crashed due to cell phones. But they DO interfere with communications. When a cell phone rings in the passenger cabin we hear it in the lfight deck as a staticy series of beeps over the radios that make it pretty difficult to hear or talk. Its especially fun when you are copying complex taxi instructions and some jerkoff in the back gets a call. "Say again? I'm sorry your last was broken, one more time please. Sorry, one more time..."

Answer 7

I have a friend who IS a pilot, Pancakes, and she (yeah, she) says cell phones do nothing to interfere. The reason for the prohibition, she says, is that MAYBE on some much older planes there MIGHT be a concern - and they use that for (as someone said) an excuse to ban it outright.

Answer 8

Cellfones interfering with navigation is just a euphemism of some sort. They don't want people using celfones to reduce the possibility of terrorists interaction. Remember 9/11?

Answer 9

just another thing to anoy us -yes the old cell phones would interfere with avionics --they dont now--remember if your cell phone was by your pc and it rang -screen fizzed a lil -same poo --my last three phones have never made it do it --technology is alot better -gonna take the faa another decade to figure it out though why hurry the make millions to be slow.

Answer 10

its not to prevent the plane from crashing... you arent supposed to have them on to prevent interferance with the avionics (communications). when someone in my plane gets a call or text you hear all this buzzing and static in the radios because of it.

try for yourself. most phones will do it. find a radio and tune into some FM station. put your cell next to it and call it. youll hear what im talking about usually right before the phone rings. no joke. see ya.

Answer 11

Believe what you want. If I was the pilot and I thought there was a .001% chance that your cell phone would interfere with my instruments, out the window it goes.
The phone that is.