Is it possible for someone with iPhone to send text/call during international flight?

[thermal]

If someone has an iPhone and they're on an international flight, can they send text messages or make phone calls?

I remember during 9/11, many texts and phone calls were made by passengers on the flights after the planes were taken hostage. So I'm curious why it seems no one made calls or sent texts during Malaysian flight 370?

 

[Small White Car]

There's very few cell towers in the ocean.

 

[yg17]

1) If Wi-Fi is available on board, they could use iMessage. VoIP would likely be blocked. But Wi-Fi on long haul international flights is just starting to be a thing. Most of the domestic services rely on ground transmitters.

2) 9/11 hijackings were over land, not water.

3) You can't get a cell phone signal at 35,000 feet. If any victims of 9/11 made calls from their cell phone, it was because the planes were at a lower altitude. But I think most of the calls were made from the satellite phones that planes used to have on board

 

[rablat]

If the airplane had WiFi which most do.
iPhone to iPhone they could do iMessage and FaceTime or FaceTime audio.
We'll I was too slow see above also

 

[thermal]

There's very few cell towers in the ocean.

Agreed. However, once direction was changed, a significant portion of the flight was still over land.

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3) If any victims of 9/11 made calls from their cell phone, it was because the planes were at a lower altitude. But I think most of the calls were made from the satellite phones that planes used to have on board

Many cell phone calls and texts were made during 9/11 from people's personal cellphones, which I'm assuming would have been 'regular' phones (not satellite phones). Agree with you about the height though - not sure of elevation of 9/11 flights.

 

[lordofthereef]

Agreed. However, once direction was changed, a significant portion of the flight was still over land.

Image

I don't know the layout of the country, so this is more a question than anything... The land it flew over, is it heavily populated? Is it populated at all? It's entirely possible it's just jungle down there. And even if it is inhabited, is it an area where cell towers exist? In heavily developed nations such as the US and most of Europe it's sort of hard to imagine, but there are countries where the majority of their landmass is devoid of communications towers.

 

[kdarling]

Agreed. However, once direction was changed, a significant portion of the flight was still over land.

Tried looking at cell tower maps for that area, and there's almost none.

Note: phones can only connect with towers to either side, where the relative speed is small enough... less than 150 knots IIRC... to 1) give time to connect, and 2) not fail due to the Doppler effect on frequency.

The plane was likely doing closer to 500 knots, which along with the altitude not only makes cell comms difficult, but gives very small windows ... just seconds... to ping a tower even if there is one to ping.

Many cell phone calls and texts were made during 9/11 from people's personal cellphones, which I'm assuming would have been 'regular' phones (not satellite phones). Agree with you about the height though - not sure of elevation of 9/11 flights.

There were only a handful of cell calls made during 9/11, and apparently they were done in the last few minutes at very low altitude.

Most calls were over the airplanes' built-in systems (AirFone?).

 

[Jimmy James]

There's very few cell towers in the ocean.

You win this thread.

In other news I'm wondering if I can make calls with my iPhone after removing the battery and with no other power source?

 

[ET iPhone Home]

As long as they link to WIFI, then yes, you can text message. Download VIBER, and you may be able to speak to them.

 

[Mrbobb]

Another expert on MH.

As long as there is WIFI and sounds like me the pilot or whoever planned this disabled the transponder beacon so disabling WIFI wouldn't be a problem at all.