Are phones on planes really so dangerous?

[coffeerevelsrule]

After flying I am wondering just how dangerous it really is to have phones not on airplane mode during the flight. As an anxious flyer I'm always struck by the fact that this is only mentioned once and not checked on. Surely it often happens that someone one board has a phone fully on? But I've never heard of an accident occurring due to it. I always have an urge to check everyone's phone is sorted and disconcerted by the casual way it is mentioned! I feel if it's not that big a deal they shouldn't mention it as it stresses me out, and if it is a big deal they should say more about it and make more of it, do spot checks with fines etc.

No they are not at all dangerous. Look up some social media pilots and you will find a proper explanation.

I honestly don’t think it’s a real “thing”- interference is a theoretical possibility but if it was true they would surely check and they don’t

what is a real concern is battery packs catching fire. Thats why they should always be in hand luggage so that they can be easily dealt with if smoking

On newer planes its fine

Some bigger airlines have wifi on board so I don’t think it’s that much of an issue!

I've been on a flight landing in poor visibility (thick fog) where they kept announcing phones needed to be off for this reason and then when they could still tell phones were on the crew checked everyone had turned them off for landing.

My pilot friend told me it doesn't matter at all unless it's really foggy or similar so they are landing purely on instruments.

I was on a plane coming into land a few years ago when a phone started ringing in the seat back pocket. I am a nervous flyer and almost wet myself! No one batted an eyelid when I handed it in after landing and explained. I assume it was the phone's owner trying to track it down, and they hadn'tput it in airplane mode...

In terms of fire hazard, yes. NFPA are developing strategies at the moment for Lithium Ion fires on board, currently submersion in an ice bucket is the only option. Interference wise, I dont know but I thought it was just when they used to go beep beep beep beep beep when they were analogue?

That’s Wi-Fi, not a phone signal. There is a difference.

Apparently, the odd phone being left on isn’t a problem. It has the potential to create interference in the pilots’ headsets. In extreme cases it could stop them hearing through them. The more phones left on the greater the probability.

https://www.travelandleisure.com/what-happens-if-you-dont-use-airplane-mode-11733373

I shall be interested to read this thread. I sat close to someone whatsapping and social media commenting throughout a flight. I am not the most confident flier and it definitely made me somewhat anxious.

It used to be a problem on some older aircraft (think maybe pre-1990 designs) and analogue phones.

Even so problems were rare but you could sometimes get audible interference over the flight deck headsets if a phone was searching for a base station (a sort of buzzing/clicking sound) and very very very rarely you'd see interference with things like the pressurisation system...basically valves moving when they shouldn't.

With modern aircraft and digital phones the problem has pretty much gone, however because you really really don't want any risk of radio interference with the aircraft receivers when doing things like autolands in low visibility there's still usually the restriction about usage in poor weather.

All the above is associated with the telephone network side of the phone radiating..flight mode turns that off but leaves you with WiFi running so you can use internet if the aircraft is suitably equipped.

I've gone on a bit but hope that helps.

That might have been me 😳 Even when the phone's on aeroplane mode you can still access and write WhatsApp messages. I quite often take advantage of the downtime on a flight to go through my chats and write responses to messages I haven't had the chance to reply to. The messages are stored and send when the phone is connected again. Even if the phone wasn't on flight mode, I don't think it's possible to get a signal at 35,000 feet so it surely couldn't have been a real chat?

I don't think it's possible to get a signal at 35,000 feet so it surely couldn't have been a real chat?

Err....Actually... if you leave your phone on (by accident of course) you might find even at altitude it might find a good enough signal to try a log-on if there's a network in range, but you probably won't get a useable.connection.

As far as Whatsapp and internet based social media goes If you are on a wifi equipped aircraft (and more and more are) then those those apps work normally, like they do with domestic wifi.

All that's happening there is the aircraft has a router/routers that serve the cabin, then the router communicates with the outside world via some form of radio link or very commonly these days a satellite communications link

Most planes have (paid) wifi you can use. Using Whatsapp on board is a really normal thing to do.

Yep never put anything with batteries in the hold

🤨 surely they were making this up? How would they know?

If you read the actual rules you'll see there's a bit more to it than that but certainly power banks and batteries not in devices should go in hand baggage..

We were waiting for a flight years back and got chatting to a really interesting guy who was an explosives expert.

I’ll never forget him saying the scariest thing to him is, they allow phones on planes, and never check if it is a working phone or a dummy. If you put a battery sized amount of explosive in a dummy phone, it would blow the side off a plane. I assume they can pick this up in the scanning but he reckoned it would be fairly easy.

As I understand it there is an issue with interference which can cause problems with comms and navigation. The reason there aren’t any accidents is, if it happened, the pilots would be aware of it long before it caused any danger. They’d hear buzzing in their headsets. I’d assume at that point there would be a call across the cabin for everyone to make sure their phones are off.

There was no way of the crew knowing (other than by eye) when I was working but things may have changed in the last handful of years

Have to say you really don't want any risk of radio frequency interference on a low visibility approach so it's not a rule to take liberties with.

Ahh bless, are you a young person? https://vm.tiktok.com/ZNdtCkfuE/

If you’ve ever turned a phone on and had it affect your home radio with that morse code sounding bip bip bips you’ll know what the pilots hear on their radios when they’re trying to hear what Air Traffic Control are saying to them. It’s particularly bad immediately after landing when everyone switches phones back on while the pilots are trying to get directions to the gate they need to get to in an airport they might not know well

But you don’t really think that happens on airplanes do you?

Many posters who work for airlines have already said that phones interfere rarely to the point many haven’t heard it.

you can’t don’t really think it’s like the early 2000s when your computer screen would distort when a message was coming in 😂? They would just ban phones entirely if that was the impact.

The last flight I was on said put phones on flight mode and we can all now talk to one another.

That's not really the case anymore..I.know this is a bit of a repeat of a pp I made but I guess it's worth a re-run..

Way back when I started flying commercially (late 1980s) the early mobiles were analogue,.pushed out a lot if power and aircraft systems weren't hardened against them...

You could sometimes hear if one was on (distinctive clicking or buzz in headsets).

Move forward to around 2000 and phones were digital, pushed out lower power and aircraft were better protected.

I don't think I saw evidence or heard phone interference much post the mid-nineties...

Where I workee allowed phones on with flight mode off immediately after landing maybe 20 years ago and I never heard any interference or had them cause problems with ATC comms whilst taxiing in.

Duplicate, apols