I've been a professional pilot for 18 years. Electronic devices pose absolutely NO danger to the safe operation of an aircraft... Middle-aged women going through menopause on the other hand...

Sure, I would risk being detained by the police and being thrown off the flight to watch a movie on an iPhone. If I had one, that is.

and what makes you think the flight attendant was a female???

My Brother is captain for Air Tran and has also told me that cell phone use on a plane is not any threat. In fact at 65,000 ft you're not gonna get any reception anyway. Only at low altitudes (which is why the passengers on 9/11 were able to communicate with loved ones)

"I have accidentally left my cell phone during takeoff and landing"
Left it where?

I once left mine on during a flight to Hawaii. The battery was almost dead by the time we landed (it seems that searching for a signal is more consuming than talking on the phone).

As for, "electronic devices pose NO threat," I have a friend who disagrees. During a flight (after take-off, before landing), an attendant asked him to turn off his computer as it was intefering with instruments. He turned off the wifi (oops, should have done that earlier) and asked her to check with the pilot--problem solved. I know that leaves a lot of questions, but I have no answers. That is the story as it was related to me.

"Cell phones interfere" (specifically the cell part, I mean, not wi-fi) is clearly bunk; some flights outside the U.S. now allow you to use cell phones.

Wi-fi isn't the same so I could understand that being a problem, but not cells. (Though it doesn't say much for the design of aircraft. [shudder])

Obviously devices without transmitters/receivers of any sort can't cause problems, which makes the whole "turn off ALL devices during take-off and landings" assinine. Using a PDA, (non-transmitting) iPod, etc. is no more dangerous during take-off/landing than reading a book, and no more dangerous during take-off/landing than it is at 50,000 feet.

p.s. kinda scary that the flight attendant was so ignorant....

This reminds me of a time I was travelling on business in my car from Norfolk, Va to my home in Maryland. I took a back road through Va, and ran into a road block. I don't know what they were doing or looking for, but they wanted to see my driver's license. I showed them that, but they had an issue with my portable CD player. I guess this was in the mid-late 80s, and they must have been new. I had my portable CD player hooked up to a cassette adapter...listening to music through my car stereo of course. The Va cop was convinced that I was using a radar detector...of course illegal in Va. I had to take the adapter out of the player, open the CD player and take out the CD...etc...sheesh...the presumption of guilt and the ignorance of technology...and this was back in the day where they made you put your radar detector under the tire of your car and run over it to avoid the $2oo fine...once the guy figured out what an idiot he was, he abruptly said 'move along'...

Yes, 20 years later it still pisses me off...lol

"and what makes you think the flight attendant was female?"

I read the article.

Ok... so here ae the actual details.

Cells, Wi-fi, Superman and batman don't interfere with the planes instruments.... Being a pilot myself... i surely wouldn't pilot anything that could crash into the ground if a cell rang... i mean come on....

Secondly.... there is a ONE major reason and only ONE reason everything is turned off during take off and landing...... Passenger attention... the thought behind it is, if god forbid something happens during t/o or landing everyone on board can properly and quickly exit the aircraft.. With everything turned completely off everyones full attention can be with the cabin crew in case of emergency....

I heard that the interference is actually with the cell towers on the ground. The theory is the towers can't handle having phones traveling fast and bouncing signals from one to the next. It causes the networks to get overloaded with work due to the speed of the plane. Has anyone else heard this?

As an electrical engineer, if I thought electronics devoces would interfere with a plane's navigation, I wouldn't fly.

If it was that big a concern they would make you check he devices.
As the comedian said, "I can just see a bunch of terrorists all on cell phones and WiFi trying to bring a plane down.

The phone can not cause interference with aircraft instrumentation or with aircraft electronics. Commercial Aircrafts use shielded cables and are rated to withstand EMP (Electromagnetic Pulses) such as would be caused by high altitude nuclear explosions. Your phone (even if you were able to get a signal) could not possible affect the aircraft systems. The FAA rules are put into place for two primary reasons. 1. Aircraft are considered to be in a critical phase of flight whenever, they are on the active runway up to climbing to 10,000 feet. For emergency and safety reasons, the FAA wants all passengers to not have any distractions during this period or anything that can prevent them from hearing instructions from the front end (pilot, co-pilot, navigator), in the event of an emergency. 2. Phones are not allowed primarily for fellow passenger comfort. Close cabin environment. Who wants to listen to the person sitting next to them yelling into his or her phone. However, this second reason, seems to be going away with the installation of Airphones on many carriers-which use designated aircraft antennas and of course generates revenue to the airlines and their phone company partners. As long as it can generate money for the airlines, it seems to now be okay.

Tony Di Giacomo, if your brother is a pilot, then he's certainly told you before that commercial aircraft don't fly anywhere near 65,000 feet.

Since we're all pilots & engineers here, I's just sayin'... ;-)

First, I generally agree that cell phones pose little to no danger to airplanes. However, I do have one little personal experience to relate.

A few years back when I was taking private pilot lessons my instructor remembered her phone was on when we were in the run-up area. She promptly pulled out the phone and turned it off and I heard a loud pop through my headset.

This was an old Cessna 152 and I'm guessing the issue was with our intercom system. However, I hate to admit how many times I have forgotten to turn off a mobile phone that was left in my coat pocket on a commercial flight. I also have to admit that a few times in my pre-Mac days, I forgot and left my wi-fi on when I pulled out my laptop.

Second, I have heard that the problem was greater for the cellular system on the ground and the earlier generation of networks were not designed to handle a cell phone in the air "lighting up" so many towers at once. However, I have been told that later tower installations have been change to block signals coming from overhead. I have no idea if that is true or not; perhaps someone can confirm or refute that. I also assume that the switching software in the network has become more sophisticated over the years.

Anybody remember the urban legend regard cell phones igniting gas tanks of cars a filling stations? Some stations were actually posting notices as if it were established fact.

On the wi-fi side, I understand some plane manufacturers are working on in-flight wi-fi systems for internet access. When the airlines see a chance to make a profit from a reasonably safe system, I'm guessing we'll see it on our commercial planes.

As a professional pilot, flying both mid-size jets and helicopters, I can tell you that cell phones CAN AND DO effect the radios. I can hear radio interference, popping, hissing and humming over the radios, when someone with a GSM phone has left it on. A call does not have to be made or received for this to happen. It seems to occur as the phone searches for nearby towers. These noises can make it difficult for pilots to communicate with one another or with the air traffic controllers. At best, it is a distraction for the pilots. Also, if the phone is left on and kept in the baggage compartment of the helicopter I fly, it causes the fire detector to erroneously indicate a fire in the baggage area, when it receives a call.

As a private pilot student and aero space engineering student I can say that there is partial truth to this whole thread. Cell phones can and do cause radio interference (more correctly EMFs). In class we were demonstrating an OP AMP and someone's phoen went off, since the OP AMP gain was several thousand the tones in the bandwidth of the OP AMP were amplified and played by the speakers. High gain detected the very weak current induced in the wire, this would also be the case for strain gauges and thermal couples and radio receivers reacting to cell phones GSM mainly.

I have also heard that switching the towers with phones in flight is a big problem since the line of site of a phone from an airplane can occupy several towers at once. Apperently cell towers somehow overlap towers and the phone talks to more then one tower at a time.

Additionally the frequencies that NAV and COM radios work on is fairly low by today's standards (100-200 Mhz). Therefore it is possible that any phone or processor with sufficient radio noise which also happens to be opperating at a harmonic of the radio COM or NAV radio can interfere with it. Further compounding this problem on some planes is the length of wires between sensors and signal processors. In some cases it might, might be possible that the internal aircraft wires are acting like antennas, though I would assume engineers would use amplified sensors which would not notice this electrical noise.

On small aircraft I would not be suprised if the compass is effected by small EMFs caused by electronic devices. In fact the compass in the Cessna 172 read different with the engine running then with it off, but this is due to all the metal and magnetic parts operating under the cowl and in the dash.

SO, it is possible to have a cell phone or improperly sheilded computer interfere with the plane's systems but in today's planes I would doubt it. On small planes it is possible but not likely, especially on planes with older avionics which are not nearly as accurate as new ones. I doubt the effect would be noticed, except the annoyance over the headsets.

the WiFi theory about causing interference with planes is bunk mainly because the last time I flew to Europe I was on Lufthansa airlines. An airline that offers WiFi service on the plane during flight. Mobile phones or computers or tickle me Elmo's POSE ABSOLUTELY NO THREAT TO CAMMERCIAL AIRPLANES.