Why are you supposed to keep cell phone off during flight in commercial airlines?

Question

I was just curious as to why your cell phones are supposed to be kept off during flights.

Does it have something to do with your cell phone searching for a signal? Can that cause problems in the plane or something?

I am just really curious. So, if you know, please tell.

Thank you in advance.

Answer 1

It has been proven that the cellular waves from your phone can cause problems for the plane's navigational systems.

Answer 2

It seems like this is the 3rd time in 2 days this question has been asked.

The true reason that cell phones are banned on airplanes was that the FCC requested that the FAA impose the ban. With the way cell phones continually contact cell towers to establish that link, imagine just one phone flying at 600 mph and contacting all the towers along the way. Now imagine several on one plane. Now imagine several tens of thousands crisscrossing the country.

The fear is that the cell network would backlog and collapse. So in a way, cellphones are dangerous to electronics, just not on the plane (in fact, I just flew to Chicago, and pulled out my phone just to realize that I left it on the whole flight. Oops.)

I mean, if it truly did have an effect, then we'd have planes falling out of the sky all day, every day, because someone forgot.

Answer 3

actually its not a problem to use cell phones during flights. It has been proven it does not inteferre with anything. They ask you to keep it off otherwise phones will go off left right and centre and it will be like a bar and will not allow passengers to relax or sleep. The same way as in petrol stations they say it might create a spark and cause an fire/explosion this is nonsense as well it have been proven. But it will cause great queues if people hang on cell phones in the petrol stations

Answer 4

cellphones only mess with the BACKUP communications!

If cellphones were that bad, and could really mess with communications/geographical instruments/GPS, they wouldn't allow them on planes!!!!

they run on the same frequency as the backup equiptment. Think about it - most Americans have heard, or at least heard of, the fact that you can listen to some of the conversations people had on the planes that crashed into the twin towers on 9/11. If cellphones were that bad, the hijackers would have no communication with higher-ups while in the plane, and they wouldnt know which way to go because their GPS and whatever else in the cockpit would be off.

Answer 5

Cell phones give off constant electrical signals. Those signals can potentially screw up the electronics in the cockpit. The shielding MIGHT protect it, but they might not, so the FAA says better safe than picking up a few thousand scattered body parts out of a subdivision.

Answer 6

Leaving your cell / mobile phone on can great issues with the planes communication systems, this is especially the case with Airbus planes more then Boeing. Early next year will be able to start using mobile phones on planes, with Ryanair of the UK being one of the first to adopt this new technology.

Answer 7

Because it interfare with the signal of the direction the plane going when your cellphone turn on it give the pilot the wrong signal it can lead to a plane crash. It can also mess up the communication.

Answer 8

You could up to 3 years ago.

It was stopped because a passenger didn't like the food he was offered so he phoned up for a take away pizza.

The pizza delivery bloke collided with the plane over New York and scratched the plane.

Have you got any idea how much it costs to respray a whole 747?

Answer 9

Cell phones emitt high frequency electromagnetic signals. When they don't find a net, they keep emitting this signals at max power over a long period of time. This could cause interferences with the multitude of delicate high tech electronics of the aircrafts causing them to fail.

Emirates is having a pilot project which tries to make it possilbe to use cell phones on board of their aircrafts.

Answer 10

i think it messes with the geography of the plain... like in the movie flight 93 when everyone is calling the people they love the base station couldn't find their geography because some ppl were on there cell phones.... verizon doesn't get service over the pacific anyways so....

Answer 11

umm the signal can cause problems but on mythbusters they proved it wrong but with every test there problems and flaws so it is just better to keep it off, always better safe than sorry especially when your at 37,000 feet going 500 miles an hour or more