For anyone who is travelling through flight, its pretty usual to switch off the phone or put in flight mode after boarding an aircraft. There are many people who oppose this, saying this is completely superfluous. There is no particular solution for this but you can get in to the reason why or what can happen if you don’t put off your phone or put your phone on airplane mode while in a airplane. Here we go;
►Why was this practice adopted by Airlines?
Once you aboard, you can hear the common request of the cabin crew members to – “Please switch off all your electronic devices”. Most of flight follow up saying that this is being done for the safety of everyone on the plane. Well, initially this ban was brought because of the fear that mobile phones emit radio frequency that could effect the airplane’s electronic systems.
►Does your phone really has the potential to mess up the in-flight systems?
No. The truth is that most of the devices build in this century are robust and won’t cause any major issues. So, the chances of plane going down (crash) just because a person boarded, forgot or didn’t turn airplane mode has a poor possibility.
Although its not life threatening, but using wireless devices with your smartphone may cause a unpleasant sound which can be annoying and distracting for the pilots. If you know the sound caused when a microphone is placed too close to speakers, you will have an idea how unpleasant the sound is. Moreover, if say 50 passengers cause this sound with their phones, you can imagine how it effects the pilot.
►How does it really affect?
It takes a lot for a signal to reach to 10,000 feet up in the air, as it has to bounce off several towers in order to send a strong signal. When the the ground staff on radio coordinates with pilots or vice versa, an interference of even 2-3 seconds may matter a lot as they can misunderstand or miss out important information such as navigational details (which might be fatal).
►Future projections?
There will a lot of changes in the future as this generation has taken over my smartphones and electronic devices. Some international airlines has already started giving in-flight wireless services for passengers. Concluding this, not keeping your phone on airplane mode or not switching off your phone does evolve difficulties for the pilot as they might miss out some important radio calls. So, better be safe than sorry!
