We are often repeatedly told to switch off our mobiles or turn it to flight mode in flights. Ever wondered why? Many people believe it is done to avoid the plane crash, some believe it is for security purpose or what not. But do you really know why most of the commercial flights ban passengers from using phones to make calls or text?
Well, read on to know what is right and what is not.
- Airlines make sure that no passenger uses cell phones to make calls or text messages. Passengers too believe that this can cause several problems like the plane crash.
- People believe that cell phones interfere with the important electrical or telecommunications systems in the cockpit.
- Well, it is true that restrictions are there for passengers’ safety and comfort for everyone.
- Cell phones are restricted in flights because the radio frequency emitted by mobiles could result in malfunction of a plane’s electric system. By an annoying sound.
- If a mobile hasn’t switched off or put in a flight mode then it may annoy the pilots and air traffic controllers as it produces a disturbing noise.
- Signals from mobiles interfere with radio communication of cockpit and towers. This can lead to the disturbance with the pilot. It’s a kind of noise that that is heard over speakers when a mobile is placed close to it. A pilot said, “you’ve probably heard this interference yourself when a phone is set near a speaker.” “It sounds like a dit-dit-dit tone and it’s pretty annoying.”
- A phones radio emissions are powerful and can be a big-time disturbance in getting important information from the controller towers.
- The system in the plane uses a telecommunication station called picocell. Communication amongst picocell and the rest of the telephone networks is on different frequencies.
- The pilot said that if the inference is repeated then it could cause us to miss a critical radio call from air traffic control.
However, it is not true that it can cause to plane crash or the flight would have to be taken down. It causes some annoyance and can be stopped immediately when the passenger or the crew member is asked to switch it off.