[ScottWhigham]

I'm sorry but your first sentence is just bad logic. Just to play devil's advocate, while you are on the ground/taxi-ing in the plane, let's say that you play a disconnected game (one that is a single player game and requires no connection of any kind). No interference is detected. An hour into the flight, you launch an app that proceeds to send your contact list to their home servers. You surely don't expect the pilots to stop what they are doing and come show you, "Look - here's what the problem you are causing is. Turn off your phone!"

The second paragraph - sure, fine. I think that's what we all want to know.

[Goronmon]

I'm sorry but your first sentence is just bad logic.

I don't see a problem with the logic. If personal electronic devices could truly cause interference, then just reminding people to turn off devices seems like pretty weak protection.

How many people intentionally or unintentionally leave an electronic device powered on during any given flight? I know I've forgotten to turn off my phone a couple of times in the past.

Only going as far as reminding people to turn off devices is the equivalent of airport security checkpoints that just have a person standing there reminding people to remove dangerous items from their bags before boarding.

[Karunamon]

>You surely don't expect the pilots to stop what they are doing and come show you, "Look - here's what the problem you are causing is. Turn off your phone!"

No, but I would expect one of the pilots to notice something that looks, smells, or feels like electronic interference, and ask the FA's to make an announcement asking everyone to make sure their devices are off because actual interference has been found and is causing a problem.

[ScottWhigham]

I agree with you that the FAA has done a poor job of explaining what electrical interference there is, and what it's effects are. I also agree that avionics gear is not so sensitive that an iPhone's connection should harm it. But your argument that the pilot should deal with problems like this in-flight is just a tad bit on the silly side IMO.

The typical pilot's mindset is, "Fly the plane but, when a problem occurs, stop focusing on flying the plane and solve/identify the problem. Once the problem is solved/identified, get back to flying the plane." You're effectively wanting to change this to something more like, "Fly the plane but, when a problem occurs, stop focusing on flying the plane and solve/identify the problem except if the problem is 'electrical interference'. If that's the case, ask yet again that people turn their phones off. Hopefully they'll listen this time. Wait for all of the people to comply and, once the problem is solved, get back to flying the plane."

It just sounds silly, doesn't it? I think we'd all agree that, if there's a problem with electrical interference during flight, we want the pilot to be flying the plane rather than having him/her wait for the passengers to do anything. Again - I'm not arguing whether this is right/wrong; I'm simply pointing out that the logic of having a pilot wait on passenger behaviors before being able to continue doing his/her job is a bit silly.

[Karunamon]

Admittedly yes, but I think the average person would have a different reaction to "Hey, someone's electronics are actually causing an actual problem, shut down everything" rather than ignored much like the safety briefing that any air traveler who has flown more than twice can recite from memory.

Why? Because anyone who has flown and forgot to put their phone in airplane mode and didn't experience a firey death can attest, the usual warnings lack both urgency and a factual connection to reality. Having them announce "there is a problem due to interference" solves both of these.

[nollidge]

> I'm simply pointing out that the logic of having a pilot wait on passenger behaviors before being able to continue doing his/her job is a bit silly.

If a passenger's device is causing actual interference, then what other option does the pilot have?

[brandon272]

You want pilots to be trying to find someone's iPhone during a critical phase of flight? No thanks.

[Karunamon]

How on earth did you jump from "Ask the FA's to make an announcement" to "Pilots trying to find someone's iPhone"!?

[brandon272]

Sorry, I'll rephrease:

You want pilots to be troubleshooting malfunctioning avionics and summoning FA's to try to find someone's iPhone during a critical phase of flight, for no other reason than to allow a passenger the convenience of not having to shut his phone off? No thanks.

[nollidge]

Karunamon is not asking for them to find a specific phone, just make a general announcement for everyone to double-check that their phones are off, and possibly to specifically cite interference as the reasoning.

[brandon272]

Yeah. Maybe I'm just weird, but when I'm in a commercial jet loaded with a couple hundred people and 40,000 liters of jet fuel, and we're in those critical phases of flight, I don't want anything going wrong with the avionics on that plane. I don't want any malfunctions or errors, even if those malfunctions can be alleviated by the FA's making an announcement requesting that everyone shut off their phone.

Hearing, "if there's problems, we'll just have the FA's make an annoucement" doesn't exactly quiet my concerns. If we're going to be using our smartphones on airplanes I want it to be after thorough, deliberate, conclusive testing has been done that proves that the aircraft is safe to fly with hundreds of cell phones transmitting in the passenger compartment.

[stevvooe]

Devices emit radiation whether they are using the radio or not. If its burning power, there is an emission, albeit small in comparison and probably hard to detect without specialized instruments.

If the radios are simply on, link layer protocols will be transmitting control signals that can easily be detected with something as simple as a smart phone.

[lawnchair_larry]

Statements like that are not meaningful. Bananas and humans also emit radiation.

Flying in the upper atmosphere? Loads of radiation. A lot more than any phone.

[duaneb]

Yea, but wifi is already enabled on flights. It's only during takeoff and landing that it's an issue.