I was on a flight SDF (Louisville, KY) to ORD a couple of days ago on a British Aerospace aircraft (the one with the high wings and the four engines). About 20 mins into the flight (during heavy turbulence) the FA made the following annoucement:
"We're getting an indication in the cockpit that there is a cell phone on in the plane. Can everyone who brought a cell phone on board please check to make sure that it is off."
You should have seen these pax (full flight, about 80-90 or so) jump up to check their respective overhead bins. The lady across the aisle from me found that her phone was on and advised the FA that she was the culprit. The flight continued without incident.
As I debarked, I casually mentioned the cell phone incident to the FA. She advised that the instruments in the plane were "screwed up" because of the active cell phone. She also said that the FAA is about to ban cell phones from the passenger compartment because of problems like this.
OK, fine. I have visions of the pilots staring helplessly at needles spinning 360 degrees on gauges like they had just flown into the Bermuda triangle. Obviously, though, not all planes suffer from hypersensitive instrumentation like that found on this one. This is the first time I have heard such an announcement, but I myself have accidentally left my phone on during flight (never on this type of craft, however).
I am aware of this thread:
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/Forum...ML/001505.html
A couple of questions based on the foregoing narrative:
a) Is this a real problem? If so, what are the physics behind a little cell phone disturbing the big, bad, fully redundant instrumentation of a commercial aircraft?
b) I do not believe the FAA, FCC or anyone else for that matter would ban cell phones as carryon items. Does anyone on this board possess such a belief?
c) If in fact it is possible for an active cell phone to affect the instrumentation of an aircraft, is the craft I was on somehow more susceptible than all others to this kind of interference? Why? If so, why is it flying?