The US still requires passengers to use airplane mode, unlike the EU. Despite claims of interference, experts suggest the risk is minimal in modern aircraft.
The holiday season is here, and for many of us, this means flying across the country to see family or–if we’re lucky–across the world to escape the winter. In either case, boarding a plane in the US means being greeted with the familiar instruction to turn portable electronic devices onto airplane mode or turn them off entirely. The reason for this policy has long been that cell phones might interfere with aircraft systems.
But the EU lifted its long-standing ban on cell phone usage in airplanes in 2022–so why are Americans still required to use airplane mode? Richard Levy, an aviation consultant who worked for decades as a pilot for American Airlines and is now an instructor for Southwest Airlines, says that the FAA’s official line remains that cell phone signals could interfere with aircraft communications and navigation equipment. (The FAA, for its part, simply referred Popular Science to the regulations that require passengers to follow all crew members’ safety instructions, and did not comment further.) The word “could” is obviously doing a lot of work in that sentence; what is the actual risk? Levy says that in modern aircraft, at least, the risk of interference with navigation equipment is minimal. “In the latest Boeings and Airbus planes,” he explains, “the navigation equipment on GPS, the same as in cars. And I’m not going to say the odds are zero, but they’re next to zero.” As far as communications equipment goes, it’s instructive to look at the FAA’s guidance on the issue, which is contained in Advisory Circular 91.21-1D on the subject of “Use of Portable Electronic Devices Aboard Aircraft.” This document gives some insight into the FAA’s thinking on the issue—especially the “History” section, which explains that the ban “was established in May 1961 to prohibit the operation of frequency modulation (FM) receivers since they were determined to interfere with the operation of aircraft navigation and communication systems.
Airplanemode Cellphones FAA Aviationsafety Electronicdevices
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