Mobiles on Planes – BBC Report

An engineer’s check resulting in the systems being OK does not negate the possibility that there were no gremlins in the system.

That’s probably a fairly remote probability, but certainly no more remote than the event being caused by a cell phone signal.

One might refer to Occam’s razor in a case like this – “where there are two or more possible explanations, the simplest one is probably the right one”. So I’m not disagreeing with Airlines’ polcies of banning cells per se, it just ticks me off that they are so matter of fact about it.

If the ban on cells were explained to passengers reasonably, in the context of the above, I believe more passengers would be willing to comply. It just smacks of the situation we had a few years ago where “there is no such thing as DVT from airline seats” which following the media’s interest was transformed into a policy of “we recommend for your comfort…blah blah blah”, ie. a reluctance to be entirely honest with passengers.

Its not illocical at all.The engineers check over the plane and the airport did the same with their systems.You might not like it but in this case the phone was the only logical explanation.Ill stick with what the experts say on this one you can think what you like ?

Originally posted by SOFTLAD
Well do you have any other suggestions ? There was nothing wrong with the a/c and nothing wrong with the ils system.No your right its not a 100% proof but the evidence points very strongly towards the phone.

That is illogical and a contradiction of the rules of statistics. You could equally argue that because more people die in hospitals than elsewhere, we should all avoid hospital – especially when we’re ill, because hospitals are a direct cause of death. Hell, lets burn them all down!

How do you know there was nothing wrong with the other aircraft systems? You have no basis in fact for making that claim.

My point is that there is no evidence that cell phone activity is dangerous on an aircraft, and the airlines seem to deny this fact and act in what is sometimes an overtly agressive fashion towards cell phone use.

…Although I am in favour of banning them on purely social grounds 🙂

Originally posted by T5
Even if a phone does not work at 33,000ft, surely it is giving off signals/receiving signals as it searches for an available network, therefore, endangering the aircraft and the lives of all on board?

Positive , and since the thing is unable to contact the base station , the level of the signal is maximum.

Ahh, POP – the Dominican Republic, a lovely airport and country!

Even if a phone does not work at 33,000ft, surely it is giving off signals/receiving signals as it searches for an available network, therefore, endangering the aircraft and the lives of all on board?

why can’t you have mobiles on inbetween stepping off the a/c and going through baggage reclaim – i got a right rollock in off some security guy who thought he above the world – rude and agressive, but then i did kinda put him down 😉

I guess that’s a very serious problem. We all see people in flight who don’t really respect this rule.

BTW GSM cell phones don’t operate at FL330.

However I believe that airlines should finance very agressive TV campain to prove and demonstrate what could happen.

That’s in human being , if one doesn’t see it most don’t believe it.

Well do you have any other suggestions ? There was nothing wrong with the a/c and nothing wrong with the ils system.No your right its not a 100% proof but the evidence points very strongly towards the phone.

Originally posted by SOFTLAD
I had this last year.We were on the approach to LGW inbound from POP on a nasty december morning.Without warning full power was applied and we made a go around.Once on the ground the Capt informed the crew that we were fully established on the ils and then all of a sudden it dissapeared ? The engineers checked the a/c and there was no problem and LGW said there was no problem with the ils.It later transpired that one of the crew at the rear of the a/c saw a pax turn on a mobile phone.This was the only explanation to what had happened.Some pax seem to think that we say turn off cd players and phones just to annoy them but things like this could have a tragic effect in the wrong place at the wrong time.

The trouble is, correlation does not prove causation. There is no evidence that the passenger turning on his cell caused the ILS to disappear, although that may be the obvious deduction.

I think part of the problem is that the airlines take it all very seriously, but passengers regard the warnings with incredulity.

A laptop? A gameboy? A discman? A cell? All fairly unlikely items to cause trouble, in the lay persons’ mind.

Certianly, the warnings should be more widespread (sings, check in questions) and perhaps the airlines need to actually explain it better (“may cause interference with aircraft systems” is weak, like I say it is regarded as fantasy by a lot of business travellers).

I always turn my stuff off, well, there have been a few times I have genuinely forgotten, and my cell has been left turned on in my jacket or bag pocket in the overhead compartment. I once left it turned on flying JNB-LHR and only realised when I went to turn it on in the arrivals hall at LHR!

I had this last year.We were on the approach to LGW inbound from POP on a nasty december morning.Without warning full power was applied and we made a go around.Once on the ground the Capt informed the crew that we were fully established on the ils and then all of a sudden it dissapeared ? The engineers checked the a/c and there was no problem and LGW said there was no problem with the ils.It later transpired that one of the crew at the rear of the a/c saw a pax turn on a mobile phone.This was the only explanation to what had happened.Some pax seem to think that we say turn off cd players and phones just to annoy them but things like this could have a tragic effect in the wrong place at the wrong time.

The full story at http://www.caa.co.uk/publications/publicationdetails.asp?id=751