Originally Posted by
buckeyefanflyer
... When the door was closed someone asked if they could keep the device on till takeoff and the FA says no as interference from the device could cause the pilot to take off on the wrong runway.
I sat next to a commuting pilot (corporate jet charter, not AA) last week and asked him what the deal was with the claim that "cell phones could interfere with the flight navigation system". He laughed and said that it doesn't work that way. If there is a phone in cellular mode, and it's within the first few rows near the cockpit, the most they can get is a little interference or squawk in their headset. Navigation, or any other flight systems are unaffected.