Originally Posted by
gfunkdave
Or, more likely, if cell phones did truly cause interference we would have heard a lot more about it than a handful of apocryphal anecdotes, given the millions upon millions of flights and likely thousands or millions of cell phones left on by mistake over the years. And the TSA would ban cell phones along with explosives.
The International Air Transport Association (IATA) released passenger and freight traffic forecasts projecting that in 2011 the air transport industry will handle 2.75 billion passengers (620 million more passengers than in 2006)
http://www.iata.org/pressroom/pr/pag...-24-10-01.aspx
The US alone has over 9 million flights per year
http://www.transtats.bts.gov/
Over 2 billion pax per year. Estimate that 0.1% leave their cell phones on (probably a low estimate based on my observations). That's over 2 million per year. Pure coincidence easily accounts for a few instances in which it appears cell phones caused issues.