ihdihd

I don't buy that argument. Plenty of people have been injured from sudden mid-air turbulence. Is the risk low, yes, is it zero, no, yet you don't see airlines harnessing passengers into 5 point harnesses or putting them in locking lap bars.

The original question was would you actually report someone who you know left their cell phone on. So its really asking two questions in this order:

1. Do you believe mobiles interfere with sensitive equipment in a dangerous way from the pax cabin? If so you would report it.
2. If not, Do you believe in blindly enforcing airline rules on behalf of the airline, perhaps when its own agents don't? If so you would report it.

What I'm spending my boredom time doing is proving that since 1 is of inconsequence, and 2 is silly, that there's no reason why it should bother you, unless it bothers you for the sake of it doing so (ie. you don't like the brazen attitude of someone who doesn't follow the rules).

BriGuy

Great examples.

Here's another: my cell phone or blackberry placed anywhere near my PC ends up piping a ton of interference noise through the PC speakers when the mobile devices are communicating in some way -- a three- to five-second crackling, clickety sound most of us have heard and would readily recognize. Clearly an example of device interference.

While proximity plays a major role, few if any of us have wired a passenger jet from scratch and can unqualifying state that no interference possibility exists anywhere in the aircraft.

It goes to an issue of avoidable risk -- even if the odds are just 1 in 100,000, you can eliminate that risk by simply shutting off all phones and devices. For air travel, I want that risk to be as low as possible because the chances of survival in the event of an in-flight problem are not that good.

To echo a point made earlier -- take a good, long look in the mirror if your life is so dependent on a mobile device that you can't bear the thought of not using it for a flight.

ihdihd

Does the Equipment manufacturer actually issue regulations or guidelines on use of cell phones? If you're a private pilot you're still bound by FCC/FAA, but does gulfstream explicitly state "don't do it in OUR aircraft"?

Teacher49

Twenty years ago Qantas did not allow use of personal Discman CD players all the way across the vast Pacific. Cassette players were OK.

I used to keep mine under my blanket. 15 hours was way too long to give into paranoid rules.

Always made it the target city, even the right airport and correct runway. Could have been the reason they lost my bags, though.

loudgonzo

Probably the reason why is because cameras are more dangerous on the ground, as in when people are taking pictures of airplanes near airports. Check out the forums at airliner.net and see how many people get harrassed by police.

fishee

This comment makes no sense -- do you know the demographics of Los Angeles -- have you ever ventured out of Palos Verdes, Century City, Redondo Beach, or wherever you live?

Are the majority of members of FT all white and Asian? Seems like it when comments like this slide with no moderator intervention.

DillMan

That is due to the harmonics affecting the giant antenna that is your headset. It will be worse if you have a noise cancelling headset.

When I did my IFR checkride, the DE made a call as I was doing my run up. Those that say the FAA will "be waiting for you" should talk to the FAA DE that was making that call.

ClipperinSFO

Actually, I think what we are seeing is what I have come to call "rule fatigue" especially when it comes to air travel. The recent incidents around liquids in carry-ons added yet **another** set of do's and don't to the air travel experience.

Next time your flight is delayed and you have some down time w/out your electronic devices, make a list of the do's and don'ts you have been told about since your arrival at the airport, starting with "The White Zone is for Loading and Unloading of Passengers Only". The list is probably long and likely to get longer with every new scare or alert, or innovation in consumer electronics.

Some rules are of course necessary for the safety of air travel, but come on, it's getting out of control. Every rule and regulation we are told about can't be "do or die" as the TSA, FAA and AA would have you believe. Intelligent people naturally question authority, so inconsistent or seemingly illogical rules get debated. Each mindless, silly or illogical rule just devalues the ones that really matter.

I like traveling by rail for the sheer simplicity of the experience and the lack of instructions, warnings and rules. Were that a more viable option for my trips, I would consider it much more often.

justageek

^ Beautifully put.

deac83

I don't think I'm even giving an opinion risk NE zero same as saying 'never say never'. The one thing that might be certain is if an electronic device is 'off' then it cannot interfere.

And I'm not an engineer nor do a have the illusion that I know the answer to the technical question. Earlier in my career I did work in the semiconductor industry (with the engineer who are creating the stuff that could interfere) with the engineers in manufacturing and design. I've seen these engineers puzzled over problems that they can't explain in the chips they've designed and manufactured. I've seen chips that we manufactured for years with no problem suddenly go haywire and have an engineering team spend months trying to fix the problem.

So if people want to believe this is a black and white issue with absolutes go ahead. After all who thought your laptop battery would suddenly burst into flames? I'm betting Sony didn't think it would happen.

I'm not a lawyer here so this is just speculation on my part. The pilot 'recommends' that you buckle up incase of turbulance. Seems that they have legally coverd themselves. Also, who is injured? The INDIVIDUAL that doesn't buckle up.

So, maybe on the cell phone/electronics they are saying 'don't endanger a plane full of passengers'.

DallasAudiGuy

It makes perfect sense. It is just purely racist, since Oakland is city with a large black population and reputation for lots of gang bangers.

The funny thing is that the poster is from MODESTO!! Not exactly the cultural center of CA.

queenladyk

So interesting. That was the 1st thing I thought of but I so often blow it off because why waste my time - but good job for calling him out! ^

DallasAudiGuy

Try Modesto

oh the Irony!!

f9999

Cell phones broadcast at a much higher signal strength when they need to. So if they're not able to reach a base station, they'll send out their strongest signal, very often.

Ever noticed that a cell phone that will have 4 days of standby time can drain a battery in a couple hours if you're out of range of a signal? That energy is going somewhere.

The question isn't what happens if A COUPLE cellphones are on in a flight, the question is what happens if FOUR HUNDRED cellphones are broadcasting at full power constantly. Those two scenarios are not the same.

While it's still probably overkill, it's a different scenario from the cute idea of a phone forgetfully left on taking out a plane. And one of the things that having on-board cell service would do is kill the desire of every phone to send out a continuous max-power signal, also limiting this problem and explaining why it's not hypocritical that a plane might be able to allow cell use if they install such a system.

And yes, the ground interference is also an issue.

Pilots communicate with ATC via headsets. If a cell signal is right there you can hear it in the headset -- that's easy to demonstrate. There are plenty of other things in the cockpit that could be affected. Does one cell phone take out a plane? Of course not, but 300 or 400 of them all on max power at once might well make it hard to hear the control tower, or do all sorts of bad things. It's not totally crazy.

csg

I'm just curious -- the couple of times I have either forgotten to turn my cellphone off or it went on in the middle of the flight, I have never picked up a signal mid-flight. I have used both Cingular and Sprint PCS. Do other people get coverage?