said by Transmaster :

Here we go again, if the avionics are this sensitive then it isn't safe to fly.

said by vpoko :

Common sense says true enough. If a 3 watt transmitter in your cellphone is a danger to avionics, then couldn't someone remotely crash a plane by pointing a big transmitting antenna at it?

said by Transmaster :

Absolutely correct I know ham radio operators that bounce signals off of high flying jet aircraft undersides increasing the range of a 2 meter, and 440 mhz transmission by many hundreds of miles. This has been going on for decades and no harm has ever been done.

said by Corehhi :

This actually happened on a flight I was on. Capt. asked if anyone had a cellphone on or sat equiptment. 2 minutes latter he asked again and said it was screwing up the nav. system and they had to use a backup system. Then a guy jumped up from his seat and turned off a sat. phone he had. Capt. then got back on the speaker and said thanks interference was gone. This was a sat. phone though.

It was on a American airlines flying from Miami to the Cayman islands.

said by 8744675 :

Remember that many planes in service today are over 25 years old.

said by vpoko :

My question is: do planes need repeaters? Seems like the fuselage would make one hell of a faraday cage.

said by DMS1 :

And that seems to me like it might be quite harmful to the cell phone, but not the plane.
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That was preposterous! Utter Nonsense! Totally unsupportable drivel! You can't be serious!....Um, what did you say?

said by Karl Bode :

It's a conspiracy using mock-science aimed at shutting yammering cellphone addicts up.

And frankly, I'm all for it.

said by fiberguy :

So everyone that has a cell phone is a screaming yammering jerk?

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No. Only the ones who persist on using the cell phone when they could easily wait until they arrived at their destination. Gets on my nerves when I'm in a supermarket or something and some soccer mom is arguing with her husband about the fact that he doesn't "satisfy" her anymore.

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Screaming infants, turbine whine, etc bother you? Maybe you should consider driving to your next destination. The angry, bitchy passenger is just as bad.

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Screaming infants is a result of gross negligence if the parent(s) do nothing to resolve the problem. And that happens frequently where the mother will just let the kid keep crying and crying and do absolutely nothing. THAT is a problem.

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I guess everyone on a red eye is going to have people calling them... That's to assume that people on the ground are going to care to call people at 2am.

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You'd be surprised. I was on a flight where a 13 year old brat was sitting on the cell from midnight to 4 am talking to someone about Xbox Live. It happens.

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Is this thread about bitching about cell phone use? or the safety of it's very use on a plane?

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They go hand in hand dude. Just like in cars, if you're yammering on the cell phone, you increase your chances of getting into an accident no matter how good a driver you might think you are. For a different reason, yes, but it's the same thing - a risk of a problem.

As far as the article, No, I don't believe that cell phones cause any electronic interference. HOWEVER, I think they detract from the flight experience because people aren't considerate of those around them. That leads to anxiety which could cause problems.

said by fiberguy :

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Personal Cell Phone: well, that's to assume that at 7 miles in the air for 4 hours there were towers that he could connect to for that long to be able to talk that much. Hell, I can't drive an interstate for 4 hours and not run into dead spots much less sit in an airplane at 38,000 feet on a cell phone for 4 hours - where a flight attendant would have put an end to that REAL quick!

So what do you think people - do we believe this statement? or is it a story that 'sounds good'....

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It was his phone...a Nextel phone, to be exact, before the merger. If you knew about Nextel and its iDEN network, you'd know that your chances of getting and keeping signal are substantially higher than on CDMA or GSM due to the fact that Nextel wasn't a digital signal; it was basically a glorified radio at one point. I don't know HOW the phone stayed active that much, but it did. Hearing how "Halo r0xs" was my proof.

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Face it. You don't appear to like cell phones at all. In the store, on a plane, or probably in public at all. So let's get to the real point - you just don't like cell phones. Fine. Let's restrict them to the office and the home. Wait! Then we don't need them at all since we already have wired phones that have done the job for years already.

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I love my cell phone. Plan to get a Blackberry. However, I know how to use my cell phone to where I'm not purposely distracting and/or agitating those around me. If I need to make or take a call, I step out of the room - sometimes out of the building - before making or taking it. Not sitting in the middle of a meeting talking to someone about the football game.

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Screaming infants are a result of "gross negligence of the parents"? My god you are a moron.. ever heard of infants who don't deal well with the difference of pressure?

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Stop deleting relevant words. I said that screaming infants are a problem when the parents DON'T DO ANYTHING ABOUT IT. That's gross negligence. If the kid's hungry and the parent is busy reading some book while the kid wails for two hours what the hell do you call that?

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I don't believe that cell phones increase car wrecks one bit. I think STUPID people cause car wrecks. There is NOTHING different about talking on a cell phone as there is talking to your passenger next to you.
I bet if you did a study on the people that have creamed their cars while on the phone, you will probably find that those people already had a high rate of accidents or incidents in their life BEFORE they had a cell phone.

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Studies have already been done. It's statistics dude. Being on the cell phone without a handsfree detracts from your concentration due to the fact that a person has to concentrate on (1) balancing the phone against their ear, (2) steering, (3) signaling, (4) accelerating, (5) anticipation of the car(s) ahead, and (6) turning your head to look in mirrors, not to mention (7) the conversation at hand. It's like rubbing your tummy, patting your head, walking, chewing gum, and whistling at the same time. The more multitasking you have to do, the less you're able to do all tasks perfectly.

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As for the "flight experience" - I don't give a rats ass about the "experience" - I, as a typical business traveler (the leading group of people that keep air lines flying in the first place) just want to get from A to B.

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So by your logic, we should get rid of (1) in flight movies, (2) in flight meals, (3) first class, and (4) complimentary beverages?

The truth of the matter - I'd like to see drink service confined to sippy cups and meal service reduced to protein bars. At least that way, the old bag sitting next to me won't fall asleep with her drink on her seat back tray for it to land on me the next change of turbulence or the food that goes the same direction. I'd like to see sleeping banned on a plane as well as I am tired of old lady Martha who hasn't showered in days falls over into my shoulder constantly. I also think we should ban fat people because they take up their seat and mine too.

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Hmm, seems I was right about your logic. Go figure.

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The truth of the matter is this - why do you attack the cell phone? It's not the phone, it's the person who uses it in a way that is rude as SOME people do, or it's the unreasonable bastard who thinks their "space" should be a cone of silence. I guess on board conversations should be banned and the no-smoking signs should be replaced with no-talking signs too!

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What part of "Only the ones who persist on using the cell phone when they could easily wait until they arrived at their destination" do you not understand? This isn't about the cell phone. It's about the people who aren't considerate of others when using their cell phone. Stop deleting relevant comments, I already told you this twice.

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This country and many of the people in it always have a tendency to attack an issue from the wrong side of things. You deal with the person causing the problem. The cell phone is not the issue. Not everyone on a phone YELLS and BLABBERS into them. RUDE people do.

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You have issues, seeing conspiracies where none exist. Nobody said anything of the sort and you know it.

said by fiberguy :

I am only going to respond to one point, the rest is useless actually and not worth taking the time.

said by NetEffects :

This always amazes me. WTF is so important that you just have to call or be connected to. Isn't it enough two people are trying to get 150,000 pounds of machine in the air? Your life is so jam packed that you can't wait to work on your Excel sheet? It isn't enough that you are packed in with 100 other morons at 35,000 feet traveling at 500+ miles per hour? As mentioned above, most people don't know how to disable the wireless card. It would be best if everyone just kept that crap tucked away. Sit back, relax, and stop believing your life can't wait. Be happy the 2000 pounds of electronics are keeping you alive.
Or, be a prick and turn on all your gear to keep yourself occupied. Just don't sit next to me.

said by SimbaTLK1 :

And perhaps we shouldn't watch in-flight movies, read magazines, or eat food on the plane, seeing as those are for our personal enjoyment as well.

said by SimbaTLK1 :

And perhaps we shouldn't watch in-flight movies, read magazines, or eat food on the plane, seeing as those are for our personal enjoyment as well.

said by plattypus1 :

...that avionics shouldn't be vulnerable to a few 3-watt transmitters
....to be FCC type-approved, and that means they can't emit spurious emissions to a certain degree.
There just shouldn't be a problem.

said by tschmidt :

Electrical faults, corrosion and a host of other issues are able to act as RF detectors and mixers under certain circumstances to create additional uncertainly. Think about stories of people hearing local radio stations on their phone or fillings and you get some idea the difficulty setting both effective safeguards and hardening devices.

said by glidereric :

Being a FAA flight instructor and a EE in RF engineering specializing in rf communications I cringe at the thought of doing an IFR approach to an airport in bad wx having my instruments freaking out due to someones Game boy causing interference to my glideslope receiver.

Get a life! When the Captain says turn off the devices please do so.

We all want to live. A lot of these personal electronic devices emit RF interference.

If you had a spectrum analyzer and could see the crap that is emitted you would understand what I am saying.