Short answer - No.
An engineer friend of mine had a project for 6 months flying around trying to get cell phones to interfere with navigation systems or any other system. The best they were able to do is to set off the smoke detector in the lav but only with a juiced up (power amplified) device not a normal phone we would buy off the shelf though.

When they say turn it off, turn it off. I don't want to get whacked in the back of my head by your iPod.

to be fair, this guy probably saw a bunch of other people do it on his past few flights and decided to do it himself. I have seen many many flight crews not even try to enforce this rule.

There's a button above you that can help. It's always nice to point it out to the person before it gets to this, but if you're still positioning on the runway then you can call the attendant. He or she will have to say something to the person. Once he or she does, note that if the person does it again you want to contact the airport police and have charges laid. Doubt you could do that, but it's worth the bluff.

I agree with the previous poster. It's likely an FF who thinks that they are special and better than everyone else. Calling the FA's helps the situation. It's a tough call for them to chastise anyone on a flight as a letter from someone who flies 75k miles a year will get read. Once you bring it up though, they have to address it.

This would be a valid arguement in states with R&P speeding laws.

BTW, most "facts" are true.

That is not risk. That is arrogance.

Risk involves putting forth something of value that you can potentially lose. This putz simply wants what he wants when he wants it. Those are the acts of a 5 year old.

I still remember being severely irked by a couple across the aisle from me on a flight from Chicago to Las Vegas last year who where making phone calls and texting from both their blackberries whilst the airplane was taxiing and taking off. The blackberries where left on through out the flight too.

Assuming they were not in "Airplane Mode", then there is a strong chance are they had little or no battery life left, when they got off the plane. I think there are a heck of a lot of people on this board who have experienced batteries dying, due to inadvertantly leaving cell devices on during flights.

I totally agree with you! I orginally started coming to Flyer Talk for informational purposes, but now I just come for the high drama and entertainment.

What You Said (over 44 years).

FT is funny. Half the posts are "some <elite> acted like an a$s" and the other half are "I was able to boot some <lesser elite than me> outta the way".

R&P would be a good point if the FA instructed folks that they only needed to turn off electronic devices that would impart interference. The instruction to turn off ALL devices doesn't really permit situational evaluation, so in this case I believe the scenario would be closer to breaking a 65mph posted fixed limit.

Agree with you that most facts are true, but sometimes in the statement of a 'fact', dispute may arise in defining the standard upon which the authority of the fact rests. Hence, 'fact' might also indicate an allegation or stipulation of something that may or may not be a 'true fact'.

According to the American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language-4th Edition, "Fact has a long history of usage in the sense 'allegation'". The Oxford English Dictionary dates this use to 1729.

My point in thought was that we can suspend any debate on whether a particular model of phone causes interference. The issue, at least to me, seemed to be a simple case of someone disregarding crew instruction, policy, rules, regulations, etc.

The chosen ones need not be bothered with the rules of which the rest of us peons are forced to comply as they were ordained by birthright to do otherwise.

To answer the OP's question, it's not a risk to the plane; and, as the OP stated, some people do feel "too cool" for the rules (i.e. the rules don't apply to them, what they're doing is more important than the rules, etc.)

Personally, I'm OK with the cell phone ban on planes. Can you imagine how annoying it would be to get stuck in a middle seat, with the pax on both sides of you blathering on about some "important business deal" or about "Stephanie's boyfriend cheating on her," etc.? I get enough of that at the gate and on the plane waiting for the doors to shut; I can't imagine what it would be like if it went on throughout the flight.

I overheard some guy across the row last week giving out several passwords and account #s over the phone, going on well after the door was shut and continuing into pushback and taxi. I was tempted to scribble them down and hand them to him after the flight, saying, "You know, you might not want to announce this kind of stuff to everyone in earshot."


I've had CDMA phones do that, too, though. You'd get bursts of barely-audible clicking or almost beeping if the phone was placed near a powered speaker or radio, etc. (IIRC, it was an AudioVox phone for Verizon, but it could have been an LG, too.) But you're right that the GSM ones are the worst; during a meeting last week, the conference call speaker phone--which wasn't even in use at the time--would make some static-like noises from time to time, and it turned out it was because one of the attendees had his GSM phone too close to the speaker phone.

The cell phone ban on planes is going to be moot soon anyway.

As flights start to get internet access, people will just Skype out when then want to talk to people on the ground. My cellphone actually has a Skype client and WiFi. If phones remained banned on planes, then I could turn off the CDMA signal, turn the WiFi on and go from there.

What's more, allegedly the most dangerous part of the whole flight is taxiing, so they want you to turn off the phones as you push-back and take off. On the other hand, you are allowed to use your phones the instant you are wheels down. The argument, then, is that a mobile phone must know not to interfere after landing, but not before take off? Absurd.

Finally on this, as I recall, the mobile phone ban on planes has nothing to do with the FAA. It's an FCC rule. Mostly in place because the carriers want you to have to use the phones on the planes at a dollar a minute.

Remember, the use of cell phones on private or charter planes is not regulated.

http://pcworld.about.com/od/cellphon...t-airplane.htm
http://www.wisegeek.com/why-cant-you...n-airplane.htm

This has nothing to do with safety, and everything to do with capitalism.

-SF

Anyone who really doesn't like the chit-chat on a plane should invest in a nice pair of noise canceling headphones, which are already on the "May be used at any time" list.

According to the FCC website:
"In addition to the FCC�s rules, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) prohibits in-flight use of wireless devices because of potential interference to the aircraft�s navigation and communication systems."

http://www.fcc.gov/cgb/consumerfacts/cellonplanes.html

I've got a pair, but they're not allowed to be used on UA or US until 10 minutes after takeoff. Don't know about the other carriers. And they're good, but I still don't want to have to listen to the person beside me carrying on about this or that. Can't it wait until we've landed?


Didn't the FCC reallocate the band used by the air phones, and they are no longer functional?

I cannot remember the last time I saw an air phone in the back of a seat. But, I have been only on NW and CO domestics over the past few years.