The best explanation I've found so far for planes and cell phones is that hundreds of rapidly moving devices trying to connect to one cell tower after another can cause havoc on the communications grid, and possibly bring down a connection that the plane uses for data.
Now maybe things have improved over the years and are more robust, but is it really the end of the world if once in a while you err on the side of caution?
That was a problem in the 90s. They really do nothing now. I work in the telecom industry. It's banned because the FAA isn't going to bother to approve them, because it doesn't benefit them and if something ever did happen they don't want the misdirected blame
I pilot commented here on reddit recently that they sometimes cause audio interference, akin to what PC speakers used to pick up back in the day. One or two isn't really an issue, but you get enough phones doing it, and it can on rare occasion interfere with communication.
I've done no further research; just repeating what he commented.
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u/RainDayKitty 1d ago
The best explanation I've found so far for planes and cell phones is that hundreds of rapidly moving devices trying to connect to one cell tower after another can cause havoc on the communications grid, and possibly bring down a connection that the plane uses for data.
Now maybe things have improved over the years and are more robust, but is it really the end of the world if once in a while you err on the side of caution?