First, from personal experience, my old nokia 6200 when placed next to my Norelco shaver, turned on the shaver whenever the phone sent/received a signal. Why? Because the RF interference was turning on the relay to which the power button was connected. Not good.
Originally Posted by dannyr
The FCC love to scare us with stuff like "if you use your cell phone, it will interfere with navigational instruments and cause aircraft instability". My question is - Did it?
In short, no... WTC was a relatively big target to miss and the terrorists flew planes before.
If one person using one cell phone can apparently affect the stability and avionics on an aircraft, what can 30 pax using 30 cell phones do ? Did these phone calls at all affect the stability of the flights?
The most dangerous time for an airplane is during takeoff and landing. Disruptions to comm equipment has a remote chance of leading to a crash. When turned on but not in use, cell phones do not put out too much of anything. They periodically 'ping' the nearest tower and when they switch towers they may send/receive for longer periods of time while the switch occurs (if you ever have this next to an audio wire or a microphone, you'll know what I'm talking about). When you're talking on the phone, it constantly sends/receives data on GSM band (whichever it happens to be where you are).
Think about this, if the cell phones could cause significant interference just by being powered on, they'd check you for cell phones. A friend once told me he inadvertantly left the cell on during the flight. Obviously nothing happened. I once saw someone texting someone else in-flight. The FA told them to stop, but nothing happened when the phone was on.
There is always a remote chance of affecting communications by using the phone in-flight.
BTW. It is a fact that you can boil an egg if you place it between two actively sending/recieving old (early digital or analog) cell phones for 2-3 hours. More time is required for new phones.