Are phones on planes really so dangerous?

Most long haul BA flights had WiFi from around 2018, though availability on shortfall was more patchy. Since 2019 most of their planes have had it, and from next year the roll out of free onboard WiFi for all passengers begins.

Also, I dont think people sit in silence waiting for the crew to give them instructions anymore. I board, get changed, put in my airpods and go to sleep. Sometimes they leave me asleep until after landing with the seat still flat. I cant remember the last time I heard a pa announcement on a plane, I fly every month long haul.

I fly Qatar Airwaysband there's WiFi and nobody is told to switch their phones off at all. Its 2025, I dont think there's any longer a massive switch on of analogue phones upon landing, when was the last time you heard a beep beep beep interference? Or maybe you didnt hear it over the racket the Internet dial up was making. I have a work phone which looks like a 1990s Nokia but thats because I visit plate areas where espionage is a concern and also around H2S and dont want to send myself into orbit. But flying to Spain on crappojet? I dont think you need to worry about anything other than a lithium ion battery fire and an absence of ice.

Thank you @notimagain. I did wonder if the message just hadn’t got to CE crew. On a previous flight I’ve been on where this happened (EZY) it was tannoyed first and then reinforced by crew. Today was just crew in the Euro Traveller cabin.

Pretty much all flights I've been on in the last few years at least tell you that you can turn your phone back on pretty much immediately after landing and whilst still taxiing back to the gate, so I'm not sure this is true.

Unless things have changed I'd suggest the most likely technical explanation is that someone screwed up.🤔

ETA : the fact you landed with some PEDs on kind of demonstrates the point that even with the darn things on it's highly unlikely these days they will cause problems, but the regulator has to think about the 1 in the 10 to the power of whatever event.

Apols for reviving this zombie thread but riddle me this please informed respondents, today I was on the back row of Club Europe on a European flight. Due to fog at the arrival airport we landed on instruments so everyone in economy was asked to switch their phones off completely. Nobody in Club Europe was asked at all. They came through the cabin collecting glasses and rubbish and checking seatbelts so plenty of opportunity but not a peep about phones, several were using them throughout landing. Meanwhile I could clearly hear/see the crew at the other side of the curtain checking economy phones were off.

What, and I cannot stress this strongly enough, the fuck was going on there?

@GasPanic
FWiW There's been talk if effectively equipping aircraft with their own base station to produce a what's been called a picocell...that would allow phone full functionalty current technology phone use on board.

Last I read I think the regulators were mostly OK with it but the airlines not so sure from a customer POV..

Back in the old days you could sometimes here the phone trying to register on a network over the speakers. It would make a repeating sound.

Haven't heard it for ages and is probably now much reduced due to EMC requirements and phones working at different (higher) frequencies.

If phones really did pose a serious danger to planes then they would be dropping out of the sky on a regular basis, they would probably stop you using them by using frequency blockers so there would be no point having them and there would probably be some sort of mode built in where the phone could automatically be switched off on a plane via a broadcast signal. They might even get you to hand your phone in at the beginning of the flight.

For the last few flights I've been on (short haul), the air cabin crew or captain haven't asked for devices to be put on flight mode, so I haven't bothered. I would always do it if they ask.

The extra checks prior to autoland in low vis are pretty standard and often a requirement of standard operating procedures.

I've been in this situation too, they came round and checked everyone.

But generally, there is no issue.

So no more proof than anyone else on the thread then. You have been very dismissive of everyone else and pretty much called everyone liars. I'm done with this thread but maybe just consider your own credentials are no more proven than anyone else's.

I'm not about to give you my licence number and TBF I've never claimed my knowledge is superior...

I"ll happily acknowledge of this topic my knowledge will be worse than that of an avionics engineer, some of the current technical/training pilots or similar, but I suspect a bit better than that of the average passenger (even the frequent flyers) and a lot of other people who work in the industry but not on the flight deck.

And how do we gain proof of your superior credentials?

Ok...I was planning to leave this alone but have to respond to that.

I don't think I generally have been persisting in posting whilst "sneering at everybody else," I've been trying my best, but there comes a point where it gets pretty overwhelming to keep getting the same "facts" (in reality often urban myths) repeatedly thrown back in your face with probably no credible reason...

At some point when discussing topics like this there surely there has to be recognition that just knowing a pilot (what licence, what aircraft..because that matters massively) or time spent in the passenger cabin (as a passenger or cabin crew) or at an airport probably doesn't give much insight into the tech side of aircraft or airline flying.

If there's no recognition of the above I guess maybe we just abandon Mumsnet to being a purveyor of unchallenged urban myth, or a place where reality is estabished via popular vote.

Hmm maybe because you persist in posting repeatedly with your expert knowledge sneering at everyone else. It's just rude and patronising. To be clear they did know and although I downplayed it I've worked in the aviation industry since the 90s, yes me and not my dog. So question it all you like, but maybe just do it in your head rather than insult everyone else who has a differing opinion.

I'd still question they "did know", as in for certain, but just to be clear the comment about influencers etc wasn't aimed at yourself and I'm not trying to argue with you, honest

The very obvious frustration I have with some of this debate is it appears to be that despite seemingly amicably resolving what might have happened on one occasion not long afterwards someone pops up here with a comment, perhaps having not RTFT or not registered/believed what's written, that sets the hamster wheel rolling again....and off we go again.

.

Well, they told you they knew, at least.

this thread does reveal how authoritative people view cabin staff as which can only be a good thing

And whilst I have no doubt I’ve flown far less miles than a very experienced pilot like you, BA flight path tells me I’ve clocked up 1.2m miles with them alone.

And I’ve had this experience once, despite multiple difficult/failed landings. So no claims of “universality” here 🤷‍♀️

Youtube or whatever, and I haven't got a relative whose dog knew a pilot once so you're are still going to have to take this on trust, but I'm still of the opinion that his "the pilots can tell phones are on" isn't a universal truth

why so tediously patronising @notimagain?

no one is claiming that it is a “universal truth”. Far from it. A few of posters - me included - are saying we have had an experience where it was clear that the pilots did know. This would accord with your own posts that on some planes, in some circumstances interference is possible.

BTW at this stage I have to fess up to once having left my phone on accidently on when I put it in my briefcase on the flight deck at the start of a Longhaul flight from Europe to the Far East..

No clangs, sirens or warning bells or messages on the flight deck displays, no buzzes or noises in headsets...but when I picked the phone up at the end of flight the battery was almost flat and it was still displaying a message along the lines of 'welcome to Azerbaijan Telecom"...😱

Sorry guys, I know I don't have the credibility that seems to go with an influencers channel on Youtube or whatever, and I haven't got a relative whose dog knew a pilot once so you're are still going to have to take this on trust, but I'm still of the opinion that his "the pilots can tell phones are on" isn't a universal truth.

Once upon a time, (flying back end of the 20th century), possibly..clicks, buzzes over flight deck headsets on rare occasions.

21st century nope...newer phones,.modern avionics, etc..don't hear it any more so up front, generally you haven't a clue.

I'm certainly not naive enough to believe that in 20 plus years I flew post 2000AD not one of the umpteen tens of thousands of passengers I was responsible for didn't have their phone on in flight.

On the basis you should never say never I'm happy to accept there may well be the odd very rare occasion where someones phone is so badly knackered that for some reason it's interfering with the headsets up front but based on my experiences it's vanishingly rare.

I was on a plane that was delayed once and a couple of people turned their phones on and called their rellies.

This was akin to my experience. My pilot friend says it does happen - and the pilots can tell if the phones are on as the interference continues.