Do you turn off your mobile during flight?

Interesting discussion. Whilst we all might have views on the evidence presented to date whilst there is a theoretical risk should we not all obey the requests of the airline we are travelling with? During my cabin crew days we used to confiscate alcohol that passengers were drinking that wasn’t supplied by us for ‘safety & legal reasons’. I don’t see why that can’t be extended to ‘phones. I once had a phone pinging in an overhead locker that was a pain in the a*** in business class. It took a lot of polite asking to get the owner to dig it out and turn it off completely.
As for petrol forecourts, well when I managed them many years ago I used to walk across the forecourt with a fag in my hand when the weather conditions were suitable, ie not when it is warm and you can see the vapours floating around. However I still boll***** the punters if they did the same!
I suppose we should all set an example and obey our hosts requests really.

I’m sure I read about an incident on board a flight where the flight crew were informed by ATC that their aircraft was constantly reporting differenent headings, heights and speeds on the Radar scopes.
After troubleshooting, they were informed that some woman in a suit was yacking on her mobile. Once it was turned off, the spurious position reports from their aircraft stopped.

discovery channel’s mythbusters did a good episode on the effect of mobile phones on an aircrafts systems, worth checking it out, im sure its on youtube

Definitely yes. Why on earth would you want to keep it switched on anyway? In any case it’s the sense of freedom that for an hour or two or much more you are “out of touch”. Just like before we all had mobile phones.

Some years back I asked the copilot on a BA 744 (in the days when you could get cockpit visits) what the effects of mobiles were. He said that the most commonest effect for some reason was on fuel valves.

Glad to see you are all obedient pupils on this forum. Now do as you are told and say no more.

Symon

But on that link you can only use your mobile as an internet device, nowhere does it say you can make calls, infact, it says the opposite.

I think if the air/cabin crew catch anyone using their phone in a transmitting matter, they should be able confiscate it. Though I guess they then would be liable for any damage to it. I agree totty, if air/cabin crew ask you to do something in line with flight procedures – you do it.

Paul, I did include a link to a study on it, maybe we should all chip in to buy it together 🙂

‘Do as you are told’ should wash on an aircraft.

I seem to have stirred a bit of a hornets nest here, but that’s what forums are for, debating openly. Why do airlines not have the power to remove or ban mobiles on any airline? I don’t think 100ml of liquid or being allowed to carry a lighter on board is any more hazardous. Hospitals also have a turn off mobile phone policy, but I don’t see anyone police-ing it. I will normally do as instructed when I fully understand the reason why I am being asked to, but just to say “do as you are told” doesn’t wash. I am just a normal punter when flying and didn’t know that I would be breaking any air laws by having electric goods switched on in flight until I read the replies on this forum, it certainly is not highlighted on any aircraft I have been on recently, nor were my work colleagues aware of this.

Enjoy your beer mate, no worries.

As for technical discussions on this, I can get all “technical” about an aircraft, but I am no Mobile Phone Technician, I haven’t the faintest idea what makes them tick 😉

Very touchy individual tonight aren’t you Paul, that comment was a sweeping statement aimed at everyone who does not, for whatever reason, turn off their mobile phones, hence the comment “turn off your mobiles“

Hmm… Fair enough. It really didn’t seem that general but my apologies for the misunderstanding. I still don’t really see why this subject should be so difficult though, it should be easy enough to give technical reasons as to why such a common problem occurs and yet such reasons are always lacking on this particular subject.

Maybe we (or I) should just leave it there. Again, my apologies if I read your words wrong, Dean. I’m gonna go get a few beers now and chill out! 😀

Don’t talk to me like an idiot, Dean…

…Pagen01, again, I DO turn my phone off, I just want to hear a sodding explanation!

😮 Aw, have I walked into something here…:rolleyes:

Very touchy individual tonight aren’t you Paul, that comment was a sweeping statement aimed at everyone who does not, for whatever reason, turn off their mobile phones, hence the comment “turn off your mobiles“

Don’t talk to me like an idiot, Dean. I DO turn my phone off in flight and I’ve never said anything to imply I don’t. It’s just than when someone makes claims that they ‘interfere with navigational equipment’ it’s generally good to see some actual evidence of that rather than people regurgitating the same old crap that everyone else says. I have an inquisitive and slightly technical mind; it’s not unreasonable to want to hear a technical explanation of how it affects these systems so significantly, and so far I’ve heard hundreds of claims and not a shred of concrete evidence to back it up. I’m not about to keep my phone on to prove a point, I just want to hear an explanation. It’s that simple.

Pagen01, again, I DO turn my phone off, I just want to hear a sodding explanation!

I don’t need to prove anything because I’m not saying they’re safe. Others are saying they’re unsafe, so it’s up to them to provide evidence of their claims.

I’m not saying they are unsafe either, but if an airliner gives me an instruction, I follow it.
I don’t feel the need to back up, or indeed research, any evidence to support the argument either way. I assume that the airliner knows what it is doing far better than I do, I put my bags in the right places, I stow the tables, I wear the lap belts, I listen to the safety instructions, hoping that this all helps in my safe passage to my destination, I therefore turn my phone off before going through departures and throughout the flight, as instructed.

So then lets accommodate the worst case scenario, and the worse case scenario is that they are dangerous and hazardous to flight, so until there is conclusive evidence to prove otherwise then why are we even discussing it? It’s not rocket science, turn off your mobiles when instructed to do so. This is becoming the “MMR” discussion of the airline industry :rolleyes:

“Demanding evidence to back up the fact”. You’ve said it right there. :rolleyes:

I don’t need to prove anything because I’m not saying they’re safe. Others are saying they’re unsafe, so it’s up to them to provide evidence of their claims.

I think you’re maybe confusing what I said, Dean. I very clearly said I understand the noise they induce on the headsets can be annoying (Ryanair don’t allow phones to be used on takeoff and landing which makes perfect sense) but that’s not the main point of what I’m saying. The main point is that if Ryanair install mobile phone equipment on their aircraft (which presumably is approved by the CAA and whoever else these things need to be approved by), then that fairly conclusively says to me that there are no serious worries about mobile phones screwing with aircraft systems too much. If it poses such a real threat then I’d love to hear an explanation as to why Ryanair allow it and why authorities have approved it.

I am not confused by what you said, the noise mobiles makes through sound devices is a good enough reason alone to have the damn things switched off in flight. I know you said that you knew they did this in a previous post.

I didn’t really think about this when I replied last night but I’ve been on a few of the flights where Ryanair allow phones to be used in flight, so you have maybe 40-50 (if not more) mobile phones on at the same time and they’re transmitting intermittently all the time they’re turned on whether you’re on a call or not. Surely this reasonably conclusive proof that mobile phones really don’t have that much of an effect?

Paul

I see no reference here, or in the first quoted post by you that refutes what I said. Ryanair may well have installed “mobile phone equipment” into their aircraft, I am so happy for the harp playing devil. But this may well have answered your own question as to why Ryanair allow it in the first place. Afterall, by your very words they have “installed” something that allows the use of mobiles, this is totally different to saying that Ryanair allow the use of mobiles at random on planes which hasn’t got the said “mobile phone equipment” installed.
You are demanding evidence to back up the fact that mobiles are unsafe, well I am demanding conclusive evidence which says they are safe, and safe “across the board”.

On a lighter note regarding phones on planes. This is just one of those mundane flights but something happend to make it a bit more memorable. MD-80 CPH-MAN, run of the mill stuff. After landing in Manc, pulling into the normal spot at gate 24, cabin crew give the all clear to switch on our mobiles. Well a sea of nokia “start up” tunes filled the cabin. You know the one? Da Da Da Da–Da Da Da Da–Da Da Da Da Daaaaaa…Maybe 20 phones all with the same tune one after the other. Well, some poor sod switches on a Motorola or Sony/Erricson or whatever it was, the tune plays and…… the whole cabin goes silent, then some guy let’s out a “wayyyyyyy” and the whole cabin starts cheering and claping at this guy with the odd ball phone. Guess you had to be there, but it was a funny end to a regular flight.

LMAO. Certainly made me chuckle, thanks for sharing!:)

I may have told this story before, but as its relevant to the topic at hand, I’ll tell it again. When I was on a BD flight MAN-LHR last year, we were all boarded onto the flight and told that once the main cabin door had been closed, all mobile phones and PEDs had to be turned off…well, throughout the taxi to the runway a phone could be heard ringing loudly so the senior cabin attendant came on the PA system and demanded that all passengers turn off their mobile phones immediately…it was only then that one of her colleagues pointed out that it was in fact her phone that was going off in her handbag in the rear galley so she sheepishly and rather red-faced had to walk through the cabin in order to get to the rear galley to turn it off!:D

As for the ongoing debate, simple point to make, do as you are told and turn it off, now there’s a good lad!;)