Lightening can, and does, cause damage, interference, and system failures.

They tried banning in-flight lightening strikes but the thunderstorms pay even less attention to the rules than do frequent fliers.

You mean they try to block VoIP calls. Anyone with IP experience can get around that block thankfully.

And as for the issue of causing problems with the cellular network, that was an ancient problem solved long ago. As noted there are thousands of cell phones left on during flights every single day. The cellular system had to overcome this issue many years ago.

Mythbusters had an episode a while back where they explored cell phone interference on avionics. They had an airplane cockpit and a radio that simulated cell phone frequencies but with adjustable power levels. IIRC there was no effect on the avionics when it was at the power level of 1 or 2 phones but when they dialed it up to higher levels to simulate many phones in use it had a noticeable effect on distorting some of the instruments.

The same reason several airlines permit in-flight GSM/GPRS usage: it has been tested and certified by the appropriate agencies. Among other things, having a small cell/transponder in the aircraft means that the individual devices can operate at much lower transmit powers. This reduces the potential for impact on the avionics. It also makes the communication much more reliable for the customer and easier to manage for the provider.

To me the ultimate argument against cell phone causing interference is that if it were true, we would not be allowed to bring phones onboard. They would be confiscated at the security checkpoints. If cell phones are dangerous, how dangerous does that make 5 ounces of water or toothpaste? Or a jelly doughnut?

My son was flying to EWR last Christmas and it was the beginning of that massive snowstorm. I knew he was in-flight but called his cell phone figuring I'd leave a message suggesting that he take the train into NYC, where he was visiting family, rather than risk getting stuck in a taxi for hours in a snowstorm. (He's 25 but hey, I'm his mother and I tend to micro-manage my own travel, too.) He answered the phone. Yes, they were in the air. I freaked out, gave him the message and rushed off the call before someone caught him and put him in plastic handcuffs. I think it was MDW and he seemed to think using the phone was permitted. Happily, the snowstorm hadn't started when he landed and he got a taxi with no problems.

I agree that I don't want a cabin full of people chattering on their cell phones- I've run into that in trains and it can be obnoxious. I remember to turn mine off 99% of the time and also disable the Wireless feature on my laptop and iPod Touch.

There is no regulation which prohibits the carrying of devices which can cause interference--The regulation only prohibits their use.

Right, but I believe stimpy's point is that if cell phones posed a legitimate danger of bringing down an aircraft, there would be regulations prohibiting them onboard altogether.

Like guns and other weapons.

It doesn't matter what any of us think is actually dangerous or not. The FAA regs prohibit the use of any transmitting device onboard the aircraft in flight. It's much easier for them to write the reg that way than to codify all the good devices vs bad devices. And there are definitely some bad ones out there that fall under that regulation. I don't remember where I saw it, but I do recall a test of some common household RF devices. RF operated toys (cars, trucks, etc) were really bad, causing all sorts of interference with nav equipment.

joe

And yet the incident rate of crashes related to electronic interference is ZERO, despite rampant disregard of the "rule".

Also, they don't. Wifi is kosher on some flights, as are miscellaneous electronic devices (not designed to transmit, but have components that create RF interference nonetheless) above 10,000 feet on all flights.

Have you tried this? Is it simply a case of sending the VOIP or a VPN over port 80? I'd kinda assumed that the internet connection would be heavily firewalled.

There are many types of firewalls and no, I haven't tried this recently on US airlines. But I have done it on many other firewalls. Yes you can always run a VPN, but that may or may not be good enough depending on how high the FW goes. There are other methods.

The point is that data is data. They are obviously letting some data through to the clients, so you just masquerade your VoIP data to look like innocent non-voice traffic.

If there was a real risk of disruption caused by cell phones/electronics, would the airlines just leave things to chance, hoping that we all comply? I would think they would confiscate all electronics before boarding, if there was a real risk.