Cellphones and airplanes: Why we should hang up
On The Spot by L.A. Times Travel Editor Catharine Hamm
Question: I’m noticing an increasing number of people who don’t turn off cellphones in flight. What exactly are the safety concerns? Perhaps if people knew more about what could happen, they would obey.
–Sandi Gateman, Los Angeles
Answer: Maybe, but I wouldn’t bet a week’s pay on it, especially now that 16 international carriers are providing service.
But the U.S. still bans the use of in-flight cellphones and probably won’t lift its restriction any time soon, partly because of a bit of back-and-forth between two government agencies and partly because of efforts to legislate our manners.
As for safety, the Federal Communications Commission’s website, under its cellphone FAQs for children, says, “Some of the places that you should never use your mobile phone are inside hospitals and airplanes. When you make or receive calls, electromagnetic waves are sent through the air. Hospitals have a lot of electronic devices that monitor patient’s heartbeats and other things when they are getting surgery or when they are recovering from an illness. When electromagnetic waves try to go through them, the devices sometimes stop working. You can imagine how bad that would be for doctors and nurses in hospitals who are trying to save lives. . . . It’s the same thing in airplanes because they use computers to fly through the air. If the computers don’t work properly, the airplane may not go the right direction or fly at the right height, or they may even crash! Next time you get on a plane, make sure that you turn off your mobile phone so that everyone can have a safe flight.”
Whether you agree that science supports this is another matter, although I think we can all agree that crashing is, in fact, bad.
But the FCC and the Federal Aviation Administration don’t always agree which one is the buzz kill here.
A spokesman for the FCC told me the ban on in-flight cellphones comes from the FAA. A spokesman for the FAA said no, it’s the FCC.
None of this may matter anyway because there’s legislation afoot to ban cellphones in flight because they’re a nuisance.
Rep. Peter DeFazio, a Democrat from Oregon, introduced legislation last year that promotes peace and quiet on planes. It’s the HANG UP Act (Halting Airplane Noise to Give Us Peace Act). He contends that uncontrolled yakking can turn a flight into a sentence to hell. (Are there degrees of hell? Isn’t flying already hell?)
But Carl Biersack, spokesperson for the Inflight Passenger Communications Coalition, thinks the cost of a midair call (about $5 a minute on those foreign carriers), the lack of privacy and the aircraft’s ability to limit the number of calls that can be made (he says there’s a maximum of six), would keep the chatter under control. He favors a study that would answer the safety and serenity questions.
Facts or finger-pointing? Anecdotes or evidence? Seems like an easy call to me.
Have a travel dilemma? Write to travel@latimes.com
[Graphic: Scott Garrett / For The Times]
16 Comments on “Cellphones and airplanes: Why we should hang up”
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June 17th, 2009 at 8:12 pm
The increasingly awful me-first attitude of one’s fellow passengers is galling. And I almost got in a fight about this on a Southwest flight beacuse my rowmate refused to put it down when ordered to by the crew, saying it’s harmless and that I just didn’t understand the technology. Did I mention this was about five years ago now? Why can’t they stop dithering and issue a ruling?
June 17th, 2009 at 10:27 pm
PLEASE let there be no cell phones on airplanes. With the ever-shortening seat pitch and dense-pack configurations further sardinizizing pax, there’s no way for cell conversations not to intrude. It’s possible to avert the eyes, but not the ears when buckled in 18″ from a self-important Master of the Universe or shrill reality TV wanna’ be. Yackety yack is intolerable - cruel and unusual punishment - when trapped in an airplane seat with no escape lest it be “congregating.” Second hand blather is like second hand smoke - a guaranteed intrusion on others’ space.
June 18th, 2009 at 7:48 am
Well put Seat 12B! I don’t want to be exposed to too much information either. People have conversations in public on their cell phones that they should only have in private. I’ve heard people talking about cheating on their spouses, fighting with their girlfriends, and complaining about their husbands. I didn’t want to know that information but I felt akward interupting the cell phone user and telling him to change the subject.
June 18th, 2009 at 7:50 am
Three words: noise canceling headphones.
June 18th, 2009 at 8:50 am
“the lack of privacy…would keep the chatter under control.”
Clearly this man has never been to a restaurant in LA. Most these people want their conversations heard, it makes them feel popular or important or something when it actually makes them look desperate and rude. They’ll take their rudeness right on the airplane if given a chance. Please don’t give them a chance.
June 18th, 2009 at 9:05 am
The danger is in fact the electromagnetic waves disturbing the sensitive electronics and avionics on a plane. Disturbances in sensors can cause the plane, usually on autopilot, to incorrectly judge the position and orientation of the plane causing it to correct for an error that is not there. However, most modern planes have lots of electromagnetic shielding around the avionics to prevent such a disturbance. I believe it is actually fine now-a-days, but that does not change the fact that it can harm flight equipment and is generally rude.
June 18th, 2009 at 9:58 am
Have you ever heard the interference when you place a cell phone near a speaker or see a computer screen flicker? Yes that is caused by cellphones, now imagine that happening to the airplane electronics when the pilot is doing something important like landing, or turning to avoid a mountain? Interfeerence does happen and you should risk your own life when you are alone in your private plane, until then turn it off in commercial flights!
June 18th, 2009 at 10:03 am
How come in the 80’s and 90’s when the airlines provided cellphones on the back of the seats, charging a fortune to use them, the planes didn’t crash? Me thinks it’s all down to the almighty buck. When cell phones became reallllly popular they couldn’t make any money off them. I do agree that sitting next to someone talking on their phone for a long time can be a pain. Do I think we’ll crash? Not so much.
June 18th, 2009 at 10:23 am
Here is an idea. Load up on a diet of enchiladas with beans, washed down with fresh spinach juice about an hour before you board. Get a window seat. When some jerk (M or F) beside you starts on the phone, keep getting up to go to the restroom. That way they have to keep getting up to let you in and out. If they still keep talking, you have the secret advantage of massive contained flatus passing right before their face, begging for release. Insensitive? Maybe. Appropriate to their act of insensitivity? Absolutely.
June 18th, 2009 at 12:34 pm
Please do not let this happen.
Cell phone usage on planes would only increase plane rage.
June 18th, 2009 at 1:15 pm
The way to deal with these jerks is to pull out your own cellphone and conduct a (fake) conversation at the top of your voice, thereby intruding on the noise-maker’s conversation. Just blather on regardless until he gives up, or do a deal that neither of you talk at all. Peace!
June 18th, 2009 at 2:09 pm
I’m nervous enough flying as it is. Listening to others yak would make my stress levels go through the roof.
June 18th, 2009 at 3:10 pm
I agree - if cell phones are allowed there will need to be an excessive amount of fighting that will accompany it. People do not understand common sense when they get a cell phone in their hand. I don’t care to hear anyone’s conversation.
Actually, let’s ban cell phone use on all forms of public transportation!! Until people can police themselves, government needs to step in with laws.
June 18th, 2009 at 4:50 pm
No cellphones inflight. There is nothing so important that it can’t wait the average few hours for a call to take place. If there is then you shouldn’t be on the plane in the first place. I can’t believe what some people talk about when they’re in public on cell phones. One person in the store was talking about the disease they had - OUT LOUD! Like I really want to know you have an STD while shopping for milk. This is not what anyone should be discussing when in the presence of others. I don’t want to hear this when I’m on a plane - that’s for sure.
June 18th, 2009 at 6:03 pm
I’d like the ban on cell phone use on airplanes to be continued and enforced. However, I have my doubts that the airlines are willing to offend potential customers. Probably won’t work unless there is compliance by ALL airlines. Maybe without the yakking, people would read more and become better informed.
August 3rd, 2009 at 9:46 am
I also don’t want to hear someone’s conversation on a crowded flight. Many people have no manners when using a cell phone and talk even louder than normal - nearly shouting, something I don’t need when I’m already too close for comfort as it is. Once waiting in line at a pharmacy I had to hear about an abortion (that was supposed to be kept a secret, she said). Imagine if children were present.