There is a lot of emphasis as regard putting phone on airplane mode before flying but why do airlines keep this laws?
There are a lot of rules and regulations on airplanes. Most of these rules are personal, unspoken for example the rule that a passenger should not recline his or her seat while the person behind him or her is eating, should not go into the lavatories barefooted.
While a lot of others official policy are announced before a flight depart. And after we must have been told to buckle our seat belt, takes our seats forward. Keep our tray tables up, the next instruction that comes is to ask everyone to turnoff their mobile phones or better still switch them to airplane mode.
Given the fact that we make use of our phones almost at every location we found ourselves, if we leave our phone on while onboard the flight what exactly will happen and how does this action affect the flight in particular?
Well, for beginners, it is all about safety of individuals and this is one of the reasons while the USA government implemented a baning in the year 1990 over panic about mobile frequencies leading to a damage of the flight in electronic system or something worst than that which might result into a crash.
However, there is no clear evidence that not switching off mobile phones has ever caused this, still, pilots keep enforcing the law. They noted that the cell phones transmitting signals can cause damages to the aircraft radio. This sound is said to be equivalent to the sound of a CD.
The consequence of this action could be to potentially block radio frequency for some seconds and may cause confusion between the pilot and the air traffic control. The ability of phone to cause such distraction depend on a number factors:
If the device is receiving or sending out a call at exactly the edge of cell reception (usually between 5000 and 10000 feet. A pilot was narrated hearing such blips on about 2-3% of his flight and with the emergence of new planes, updated technology and phone, It becomes even rarer as regard what happens to passengers who do not switch off their phones or put them in airplane mode.
Why Is The Airplane Mode Rule?
If you may real, there was a time airlines ask passengers who are onboard to turn off their phones completely and that i think happened around 2012-2013 not too long after a meeting with flight executives such as pilots, passengers, aviation manufacturers, mobile phone tech representatives. The Federal Aviation Administration officially announced that passengers could have their mobile phones on during flight so long as they were set to airplane mode.
The aviation industry have had number of reports over the past years usually concerned with mobile phones and how it causes system malfunction. The relationship that exist between phone signals and the navigation system is not as that of pure science although it is rare but a clash of cell phones with the system function is still on.
Bobby laurie a former fight attendant and a TV host said” The best way a pilot was able to explain to me was if you have ever kept your mobile phone close to the speaker, before it begins to ring, you will first hear some clicking noise coming from the speaker” Laurie explained. “That is exactly the same thing they hear in their headsets or flight base speaker system during communication.” And most important, when flying an aircraft, the last thing one want are extra noise while concentrating.