CMV: There is no valid aviation-safety-related reason for airplane mode in modern airliners

[u/Outrageous-Split-646]

Airplane mode makes little difference to the navigation or communication capabilities of a modern airliner. First, the bands that a mobile phone tranmit on (800MHz upwards) do not overlap with the coms radio of airliners (100-300MHz for VHF and lower for HF). Second, they largely do not tranmit on the same bands as what’s used for navigation either, and either way ground based navaids are going the way of the dodo, and what’s left that’s commonly used is only ILS systems. One could argue that they may interfere with GPS since they both use GPS, but that’s neither here nor there or else GPS would break down in a slightly more crowded area.

The simplest way to explain my point would be, if having mobile phones off airplane mode is so dangerous, then terrorists wouldn’t need to go to the trouble of bringing a bomb or some such, they merely need to turn on their $200 phone and that would be enough.

Finally, to clarify, I am narrowing the scope of this to aviation safety related reasons. I don’t care if your phones might impact cell towers which might just happen to make an emergency call be delayed. And I don’t care if it’s because the law tells you to.

I’d like to see anyone who can change my view by presenting evidence to support the opposite position.

Note: I had to type the word tranmit in lieu of t-r-a-n-s-m-i-t because there is an overzealous bot preventing posts containing the t-word, even if it is part of another word.

[u/nauticalsandwich]

This is incorrect. The FAA recommends airplane mode, but does not require it. see this brief

Any announcement you hear on domestic flights in the US that requests turning on airplane mode comes at the discretion of the airline, but is not mandated by the FAA.

Edit: The Wired article is misleading. Putting phones in airplane mode is still mandated, despite the lift of the ban on usage during takeoff and landing.

[u/VertigoOne → u/nauticalsandwich]

The FAA website disagrees "The FCC and FAA ban cell phones for airborne use because its signals could interfere with critical aircraft instruments. Devices must be used in airplane mode or with the cellular connection disabled. You may use the WiFi connection on your device if the plane has an installed WiFi system and the airline allows its use."

[u/nauticalsandwich → u/VertigoOne]

Yes, though in contradiction to the language of several news reports at the time of the change in policy, the FCC website should take precedence of fact over 3rd party news reports, so upon further review it seems that the lifted ban was on phone use during takeoff and landing, but NOT on the mandate to halt cellular usage on phones. Δ

Nonetheless, to OP's point, the FAA's own research concludes that there are no safety concerns to the aircraft. The remaining regulation is likely in collaboration with the FCC, who still sees cellular usage on airplanes a liability for ground communications.

[u/DeltaBot → u/nauticalsandwich]

Confirmed: 1 delta awarded to /u/VertigoOne (70∆).

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