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117 Comments
- inactive, on 12/08/2007, -1/+59Mythbusters say "No," and I believe them.
- actorboy, on 12/08/2007, -0/+30They're dangerous in flight if you're sitting next to me and won't shut the hell up. That's right, I'm an internet tough guy. Who wants some?
- DangerCollie, on 12/08/2007, -2/+25If airliner avionics are so fragile a cell phone could cause problems, then why isn't the FAA making them harden those circuits? They fly over cell towers while landing for crying out loud. For that matter if anyone could bring any electronic device on a plane that would screw up avionics they should be rethinking all the wiring.
- davidrools, on 12/08/2007, -1/+16Mythbusters is a completely unreliable source. Their methods are completely flawed and their conclusions are applied way to generally (they really only prove the result of their specific test and nothing else).
But it's still a fun show to watch. - IllBeBack, on 12/08/2007, -0/+13I think they should keep the cell phones off. Who wants to sit in a plane full of people talking on their cell phones?
- xfirei, on 12/08/2007, -1/+14Honestly who the hell cares if cell phones work on planes. do you wanna sit there and listen to them for the whole flight. Public transportation is not the place for cell phone call.
- WordsnCollision, on 12/08/2007, -2/+14If true, why hasn't the TSA or Homeland Security declared cellphones etc as terrorist "weapons" in the same class as boxcutters and gel liquids? Yeesh, maybe they will!
- DeskFlyer, on 12/08/2007, -0/+11The Sun causes more interference with aircraft systems than any cell phone ever could.
- thewrenchpilot, on 12/08/2007, -0/+101. If they actually did cause problems, then they would probably frisk you and not let you take them on the plane. I can't count the number of times I've left mine on throughout the flight.
2. I'm glad though, who wants to hear someone on the phone an entire flight? It's bad enough when you land and there's 20 people calling to let so and so know they just landed....yaaaay! - IllBeBack, on 12/08/2007, -1/+10You go girl!
- scoottie, on 12/08/2007, -0/+8Its a myth, but i still wouldn't want to be trapped in a plane with hundreds of other people on their cell phones.
- Shurl43, on 12/08/2007, -0/+8It's bad enough to have to deal with screaming babies. Do you really want to be stuck having to listen to a plane-full of jerks yakking their heads off about some inanity for the duration of your flight? I had to endure some guy just talking his head off all the way from Houston to LGA. He wasn't on his phone - he just wouldn't shut up. I could still hear him even with noise cancelling earphones on. Cell phones on planes would be very, very bad.
- scooterbaga, on 12/08/2007, -0/+7No kidding. Why bring a bomb on a plane when you could just use some sort of 'electronic device' to bring it down.
- DeskFlyer, on 12/08/2007, -0/+7And it wasn't inches vs centimeters; it was pound-force vs Newtons. ;P
- lhbaker, on 12/08/2007, -0/+7That wasn't NASA. It was Lockheed Martin.
- bburrito, on 12/08/2007, -0/+6This is 100% myth and I know because I worked with cellphone technology on planes. Cellphones on planes dont negatively affect the planes, they negatively affect the cell sites. Cell towers work on line of sight. If there is anything in the way between you and a cell tower, reception strength is decreased. Cell services make up for this by maintaining connections with multiple cell towers and changing from tower to tower as needed to maintain a constant connection and conversation. Usually you will be connected from 2-10 cell towers at any given time. But what happens when you are 6 miles in the air? The number of cell sites that you have line of site to with NOTHING in between is huge. In a metro area there can literally be hundreds of cell towers that you are in range of given nothing but air in between. Considering that each phone can have hundreds of connections to cell towers from the air, imagine what happens when you have 300 cellphones in the air each connecting to 100 cell towers? Aircell created its own network and transponders to handle this but so far is only capable of handling low levels of traffic which is why you don't see it on commercial planes.
So yes, the idea that cellphones affect the plane is a lie. The truth is that the cellphone companies simply have no reason to invest money to enable a service that they likely would be unable to charge more for but would clearly cost them more. - Calcularius, on 12/08/2007, -1/+7Apparently, not as dangerous AS A BOTTLE OF ***** WATER!!!!!
- ausfahrt, on 12/08/2007, -2/+8You have absolutely no ground on which to stand with that statement. Sound like you pulled it out of thin air.
- vanscott, on 12/08/2007, -0/+6the landing strip, where else?
- wheresjim, on 12/08/2007, -0/+6I used to work for a cell carrier and it's not billing as much as it is about transiently clogging networks. Because you are likely in Line Of Sight of MANY more cell towers than when you are on the ground, and each tower has a finite capacity of phones it can provide service for. Now multiply each plane by the number of passengers (say 130 for a typical 737 or 400 for a 747) and you have a cell network nightmare. As each plane passes over, it leaves a wake of dropped calls and fast-busys.
- FirstDigg, on 12/08/2007, -1/+7"They tested 37 commercial flights and learned that on each flight between one to four cell phone calls were placed."
I pretty much assumed that tons of phones get left on, but people actually making calls surprised me. - Topher06, on 12/08/2007, -1/+6I think the biggest problem here is that NASA is maintaining the database. I think they keep it so that when they forget to convert inches to centimetres, they can blame it on a cellphone.
- DiggzDE, on 12/08/2007, -0/+5It is probably just the pilots calling their fellow flying buddies to figure out what strip club they are going to meet at once they land.
- sbassin, on 12/08/2007, -0/+5I'm a pretty careful guy but I've accidentally left my phone on for entire flights a couple times. I'm sure every full jumbo jet has at least two or three cellphones on it that aren't in any airline mode. Considering that planes take off and land successfully in the US every second, I say myth.
- MrBelding, on 12/08/2007, -0/+5Thats a great fnd, I've always wondered if its a big deal or not. Flight attendants always kind of casually tell you to turn them off. I've thought if its a big risk they would be hounding everyone to turn them off.
- astromatt, on 12/08/2007, -1/+6No Cell Phones on Planes:
1 cell phone doesn't interfere...
4 cell phones don't interfere...
Cell Phones Allowed:
368 cell phones on a 777 don't interfere? - uclinux, on 12/08/2007, -2/+7I work for a cell phone company and it really has nothing to do with the airplanes. They are really unaffected completely. Dumbledorito is right it really screws with the network. Think about it like this towers near each other are connected to the same point and are designed to talk to each other. When its on in flight your phone is connected to tower so far away from each other they get screwed up.
- centran, on 12/08/2007, -1/+5Your phone can only be "connected" to one cell tower at a time.
When you are driving in your car you switch to different towers as you go alone. This takes several minutes.
When you are in the air your phone can "see" many towers. You have the potential to switch between several towers within seconds. That is what wrecks havoc on the cell tower system. They where not designed to hand off your call that quickly. - DesertFlyer, on 12/08/2007, -0/+4Well you should also speak to a few pilots. Certain aircraft are more susceptible to interference from cell phones than others. Usually there are no problems, but it does happen.
- pastasauce, on 12/08/2007, -2/+6I doubt that's the reason why it's a federal law. If so, shouldn't cellphones be illegal on passenger trains too?
- 80hd, on 12/08/2007, -3/+7An airplane is also a fairly effective Faraday cage. A radiating antenna inside has more effect than almost anything outside could.
That said I still think the ban is a mix of bureaucracy and an excuse for people to STFU and not be annoying in flight. - 4040, on 12/08/2007, -0/+4I just tried that and now my entire family is dead!
- heypetray, on 12/08/2007, -0/+4You don't think that scientists could confirm that it has an effect on the flight instruments by now? They know it doesn't, but if they tell people that it has no effect, people will be on their phones throughout the entire flight, causing discomfort to other passengers. Be happy this myth hasn't seen its end.
- madformadness, on 12/08/2007, -0/+4No.
- lhbaker, on 12/08/2007, -0/+4Honestly, I don't think airplanes and speakers are that much alike. In fact, they're less alike than apples and oranges.
- scoottie, on 12/08/2007, -0/+3Try shielding the cables and the speakers like the airlines do so that EM waves from the Sun don't interfere with the airplane and see what happens. Nothing.
- thegreatsam, on 12/08/2007, -0/+3He's right. Cell phone companies can't reliably track you for billing purposes when you are above their towers like that, and moving very rapidly.
- Dumbledorito, on 12/08/2007, -0/+3A friend of mine that works for Verizon claimed that phones in the air effed up the network on the ground. Of course, he's been full of crap about stuff before, and he works in the accounting divison...
- DesertFlyer, on 12/08/2007, -0/+3I do know cell phones are handy when your radios go out. Just call up the tower. I assume that doesn't work too well at higher altitudes, but for us GA pilots, it's a nice tool.
- fzuccaro, on 12/08/2007, -0/+3I owned and worked in an aircraft avionics shop where we only did part 121 and 135 work, (heavy iron) and I can tell you with some authority that cell phones DO NOT affect aircraft electronics. C'mon, think about it.
- Gabberwok, on 12/08/2007, -0/+3All I know is that if planes are that sensitive to radio interference from common household electronics, the FAA needs to require some improvements to planes or keep all electronics off the plane. Why bother making us go through a metal detector if a terrorist could take down a plane by leaving on his cellphone? Obviously that would never happen, and although I'm always very careful to shut off my phone in the movie theater, I'll admit that I've stopped taking that warning seriously and never shut off my phone anymore when I fly.
For the record: still alive, after dozens of flights with my cellphone left on... - dagamer34, on 12/08/2007, -1/+4If cell phones could take down planes, terrorists would be using them. Are they? *oh, no, I see Homeland Security, gotta go!*
- AutoShovel, on 12/08/2007, -0/+3Note that pulling a signal at 30,000' isn't that easy from a cell tower. They are designed to radiate sideways, not upwards and then over a fairly limited range. Add to that you are stuck inside a big aluminium cigar tube snd you can see why getting a lock is hard even without the multiple cell tower issue. Coming into land is another issue. Many years ago I worked at a place doing VOR and ILS equipment. One GSM/TDMA phone may or may not be a problem (can cause calibration problems). Multiple phones were known to definitely cause problems through signal interactions. The instruments themselves are quite well shielded but Ii the cables and connectors in the instrument bay are leaky at all (yes this does happen then the cell signal can leak in their as well. The same happens for the display units in the cockpits which are effectively often remotes for the boxes in the avionics bay.
- necoates, on 12/08/2007, -0/+3I repaired aircraft electronics for 9 years, specifically NAV equipment, and the answer to the question is NO. Your cell phone will not interfere with the aircraft instruments or communication. The reason that they want you to turn your phone off has more to do with the cell phone infrastructure. For example, if you have 200 or so people with their phones on going 450MPH they are switching cell towers constantly and causing problems for the cell phone companies, there is some sort of agreement between the cell companies and the airlines to get you to shut yours off.
Most Nav equipment is aligned in a much more frequency dirty environment than a cell phone can produce. - davidrools, on 12/08/2007, -0/+3I HATE pound-force vs pound mass
- davidrools, on 12/08/2007, -0/+3Good point about people being annoying. I'd much rather not sit next to someone jabbing on the phone for 8 hours.
- AutoShovel, on 12/08/2007, -0/+3Not quite. The handset will ramp its power up to get out of the aluminium can that is an aeroplane. With GSM, whether or not the signal interferes with comms or nav signals is one thing but the frame rate definitely does, having heard a phone break through on the PA. Some nav systems are particularly vulnerable to interference, hence the caution.
- garywoo, on 12/08/2007, -0/+3myth BUSTED
- jagged2600, on 12/08/2007, -0/+3Yep, I wholeheartedly agree. I'm an avionics tech. and I have never seen an issue of RFI causing issues where there weren't other underlying problems.
- inactive, on 12/08/2007, -0/+2Your girlfriends father?
Well that's good enough for me. -
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