With all the people who don't turn their devices off/in airplane mode, the rule should be thrown out. However I do think that it is a good excuse to help make sure people pay attention to the safety messages at the beginning of the flight.
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
FAA Still Looking at Digital Device Use During Takeoff and Landing
- Thread starter MacRumors
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
The point is books aren't made of glass. Electronics have tons. Shards of glass and flying devices themselves do not seem like a good mix to me in a cabin full of people.
I'm just curious. If it COULD be done, why hasn't North Korea or some other terrorist group disguised a device to look like a phone or tablet and then interfered with a flight? Certainly a TSA rep can't tell what circuitry is in a device. If cellular or Wifi signals can be so dangerous, how come no one has exploited this weakness in the wild?
My opinion? If someone could screw with the functioning of an airplane with the technology of a cell phone, they totally would have by now.
My opinion? If someone could screw with the functioning of an airplane with the technology of a cell phone, they totally would have by now.
thing is, those 10 minutes or whatever are 10mins where you are still connected.. and you can give real time updates to people as to your flight status.. (well, we've been sitting on the tarmac for 30 minutes but here we go.. flight time is 2 hrs.. meet me at 6:45)
one of the main benefits of recent handheld communication devices is that we can better coordinate meeting times and locations between distant people..
regardless of wether or not this should be allowed, (i.e.-im not arguing if it should or shouldn't be allowed).. it's a big reason as to why people may want to use a phone/text during takeoff and landing..
For the past 22 years I've been going to town to drink with my buddies every Saturday night and get stinko drunk, then drive 35 miles home. Nothing bad has ever happened. Never got a ticket for speeding or knocking over sign-posts, so it must be safe and OK to keep doing it.
----------
Thanks for planting this seed in the minds of thousands.
Or... they could just enforce it the way they do now. (i.e., they don't and also know they can't possibly "police" this nonsense.)
What's next... pacemakers with an Airplane mode?
ok.. i see..
even then, i'd rather be hit by little shards off glass at 100mph than a book.. or my neighbor's hand.. or whatever..
for clarity sake, i'm not trying to say a phone as a projectile during a flight problem shouldn't be viewed as a safety concern because it does pose a very real threat.. what i am trying to say is that there are way way too many other scenarios which are similar (well, mostly much worse and more severe) to be focused in on saying "no phones on flights because they are projectiles in the event of a crash"..
My point exactly is that this is so obvious that it has to have been thought of and possibly tried, but nothing has happened.
I'm pretty smart, but I'm sure smarter people than me (at least on the technical, hardware level) have thought about this before.
My guess is that is has nothing to do with it causing any interference, but more just to get people to listen to their emergency procedures
Where were those dudes on all my flights? He'd have been extremely busy telling people on almost every row to turn off their hidden phones, haha! I see most people leave them on and either tuck it under their leg or toss them in the seat pocket. Guess the undercover ones didn't want to advertise their air marshal status to all 250-300 passengers. Plus, it would be funny to see how his device reacts when the signals are coming from 360º around him as he walks down the aisle.
*Arrows pointing in all directions* ~~"Arrest entire cabin for RF violation!"Cell-network-blocking devices certainly exist, you can buy them on the internet, and they are usually designed to look like a cell phone for discretion. They are illegal in the USA, I believe, with some exceptions. Don't know how they would interfere with a jet.
And? You are going to run up to the cockpit and save us? Thank you, but...unrealistic.
Where were those dudes on all my flights? He'd have been extremely busy telling people on almost every row to turn off their hidden phones, haha! I see most people leave them on and either tuck it under their leg or toss them in the seat pocket. Guess the undercover ones didn't want to advertise their air marshal status to all 250-300 passengers. Plus, it would be funny to see how his device reacts when the signals are coming from 360º around him as he walks down the aisle.
He was seated next to me in business class on cross-country flight and was "outed" during a disturbance from an unruly (drunk) passenger back in coach. After he got the guy settled down and returned to his seat, we struck up a conversation and he was actually pretty engaging thereafter.
For all I know, the guy was full of crap. But I got the distinct impression he was serious and that he didn't 'scan' randomly for signals. Instead, he'd use the device to scan an individual he already had reason to suspect...or reason to want to detain/search at any rate. In other words, a "probable cause excuse" sort of thing.
Which does make me wonder what a few other posters have already said. If radio signals can really wreak havoc on board a flight, I'm sure they would have already been abused for that very reason. Laser pointers used by pranksters from the ground on pilots doing landing/takeoffs have happened enough to make it a felony everywhere in the US already, so I'm sure a prankster would have already figured out a way to trigger a commercial airliners gear to go haywire if they could have by now.
Do you as a passenger have anything to do with giving OK signals for clearance? No. This means people can be quieter and mind their own business while waiting, which I would much rather have than all the talking and screaming.
Loophole
I take 4-8 flights/month, on a variety of (ever-consolidating) airlines.
Some people simply do not put their phones/tables in airplane mode or turn them off. Occasionally this is done knowingly, but usually not. It's probably safe to say that most passengers have at some point failed to properly disable their devices. If even 1% of passengers forgot, you'd have several people on an average flight in violation of this rule.
One HUGE loophole: flight attendants frequently (but not always) tell passengers to completely turn OFF their phones, because airplane mode is NOT permitted during takeoff. So they completely shut down their phones and then boot them up when it is "safe" to do so...right back into full communication mode because they were told not to put them into airplane mode! I don't know how many times I've sat next to someone playing around with their phone or tablet while NOT in airplane mode.
If there were serious concerns we'd know about it. There have been literally millions of flights since the cell phone era began and there is ZERO evidence of phones/tablets causing harmful interference. The explanation we're given is that it is theoretically possible. If that is true, it must be an extremely remote possibility or else they simply wouldn't allow electronic devices on a plane.
I certainly don't want people having phone conversations during flights, but airplane mode is just fine from takeoff to landing.
I take 4-8 flights/month, on a variety of (ever-consolidating) airlines.
Some people simply do not put their phones/tables in airplane mode or turn them off. Occasionally this is done knowingly, but usually not. It's probably safe to say that most passengers have at some point failed to properly disable their devices. If even 1% of passengers forgot, you'd have several people on an average flight in violation of this rule.
One HUGE loophole: flight attendants frequently (but not always) tell passengers to completely turn OFF their phones, because airplane mode is NOT permitted during takeoff. So they completely shut down their phones and then boot them up when it is "safe" to do so...right back into full communication mode because they were told not to put them into airplane mode! I don't know how many times I've sat next to someone playing around with their phone or tablet while NOT in airplane mode.
If there were serious concerns we'd know about it. There have been literally millions of flights since the cell phone era began and there is ZERO evidence of phones/tablets causing harmful interference. The explanation we're given is that it is theoretically possible. If that is true, it must be an extremely remote possibility or else they simply wouldn't allow electronic devices on a plane.
I certainly don't want people having phone conversations during flights, but airplane mode is just fine from takeoff to landing.
What part? That people are a bunch of babies that dont like being told what to do? Or that unrestricted use will invite the incesant chatter of dozens of self important people having loud conversations on their phones?
I'm not saying you will or that anyone with a pinch of decency will. But there are billions of people and I am sure there are a bunch out there with cell phones that did not get the, "I dont want to know what your cat had for breakfast" memo.
I dont oppose the lifting of the ban so much for the technical detractors of the debate. I more do not like the social disorder and lack of manners that will ensue when a restriction like this is lifted? Text all you want, keep the thing on mute or buzzer.
Even if we flip back to the technical side, as was mentioned in the forums, RF detectors exist. How does a marshall root out a troublemaker if they can now hide in the mask of everyone elses RF signals?
I'm on the "make things easy, get things going" team.
How hard can this be? EMI testing is done routinely in the Aerospace industry. The way to do this would be to outfit a plane with various EMI emitters (e.g. phone, pad, pod, computer, etc.) around various part of the plane's interior. You would also need equipment to monitor signals on critical systems and their wiring. You then fly with all emitters off to establish your baseline set of voltages/currents/performance/warnings. Then you turn all the emitters on, repeat the same flight pattern again, and compare the "on" measurements to the "off" measurements. The only "problem" is somebody would have to provide an airplane, the test equipments, and pay for all the folks involved. And THAT is the real reason it is "difficult" to make a ruling. It is all about $$$.
So, this was your only 15 minutes away from people using electronics? And you want the FAA to maintain that for you?
hmmm. currently, you're allowed to talk on your phone while on airplanes.. (boarding, taxiing, in flight, exiting)..
if the social disorder youre claiming will happen upon the faa lifting these regulations then they would also already be occurring in the situations i mentioned above..
can you honestly say there is already a social disorder problem with people talking too much on phones while on a plane?..
i mean, i fly a lot.. a lot.. and i've never been bothered in a way you're claiming.. but maybe i'm just a little more tolerant? or maybe there isn't a problem in the first place?
The reason you're not allowed to use your cell phone in a plane are FCC rules, not FAA rules. When you're up in the air, your phone "sees" too many cells on the ground and causes interference. The licensing for cell phones is terrestrial-mobile, not aeronautical-mobile.
My father is a commercial airline pilot, and he says that the main reason they want people to shut off electronics during takeoff and landing is so that people aren't using headphones during the most dangerous portions of the flight. If there is an emergency, passengers need to be able to hear and respond to instructions from the flight crew. According to him, no one is really concerned about consumer electronics causing problems with instruments, and he doesn't know why that explanation is always thrown out.
