A mobile phone’s potential to interfere does not just exist when it is being used, but also when it is dormant, which is why cabin crew ask passengers to use Flight Mode.
Smith estimated that despite the clear request at the beginning of each flight, “at least half of all phones, whether inadvertently or out of laziness, are left on during flight”. But he added that if mobiles were that great a concern, the policy would be more actively enforced.
Mobile phone use had only been raised as a possible factor in the aftermath of one major air accident: a Crossair crash in Switzerland in 2000. But investigators pointed to numerous other factors and concluded that there were “no indications that aircraft systems were negatively affected by electromagnetic interference (EMI)” from mobile phones.
Even if mobile use is not safety critical, however, it may well annoy your pilot. And when the cockpit should ideally be a place of calm and serenity, that is not ideal. Discussing the issue, the website The Points Guy quotes a private pilot, Nikita Schmidt:
“Your phone will probably annoy a few pilots and air traffic controllers. But, most likely, not badly enough for them to take action against you, if that’s what you want to know.
“You may have heard that unpleasant noise from an audio system that occasionally happens when a mobile phone is nearby. A phone’s radio emissions can be very strong, up to 8W; they cause this noise due to parasitic demodulation. I actually heard such noise on the radio while flying. It is not safety critical, but it is annoying for sure.
“Of course, there is plenty of attenuation between phones in the cabin and the pilots’ radio. However, if say, 50 people on board are inconsiderate enough who can’t be bothered to switch their cell radio off, there will be 50 phones constantly looking for cell towers at maximum power. That is a lot of radio pollution.
“When in-flight cellular service is provided, there is a cell station right next to those phones. They communicate at very low power without causing any disturbance. The Wi-Fi signal is much weaker (100mW) than GSM at its peak, and I never heard of it causing any problems.”
So under the current system, phones do have the potential to interfere with the flight crew, but only to a small, if annoying degree. And when airlines offer in-flight 5G, this should not be a problem.
Nevertheless, as Smith points out, there will be social implications.
“The minute it can be proven beyond reasonable doubt that phones are safe, a percentage of flyers will demand the right to use them, pitting one angry group of travelers against another, with carriers stuck in the middle,” he said.
“The airplane cabin is a last refuge of relative silence. Let’s keep it that way.” We’re inclined to agree.
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