Once again my EVDO card has proven wildly useful on this trip; web access whenever and wherever I want it is invaluable! I was just thinking about how great it would be to use it on the plane trip home tomorrow and remembered that it’s not an approved device. This got me thinking again about the several year old adage of planes and electronics.
What is the deal with not using cell phones on planes? And what is the deal with turning off electronics during takeoff and so on? Are the avionics on the plane so fragile and exposed that they can be upset by consumer electronics? That’s ridiculous and irresponsible if true.
Let’s look at what they are really telling us: When they say that using a cell phone during a flight can mess with the plane they are actually exposing a terrorist weakness. If it was so risky, a terrorist could theoretcially gain control of the aircraft by threatening to turn on his phone and make a call. Just think if 7 terrorists boarded a plane with cell phones and then started threatening to make calls, it would surely crash the plane according to what we’re being told – they could apparently make it even more dangerous by threatening to turn on a computer AND make a phone call during landing procedures.
If this scenario were even REMOTELY possible, wouldn’t they make it illegal to bring cell phones, computers and ipods onto a flight????
Here’s what I think the real reason for this is, and I’m actually somewhat grateful for it: the reason they tell us all this is to scare people out of using phones while on the plane. Now, I think it’s probably to get us to use their stupid AirFones for $3.00/minute, but where I’m grateful for it is that it means that I’m not surrounded on the plane by people gabbing on their cell phones, that would really suck! However, the no cell phone rule precludes me using my EVDO card on the plane, which means I can’t get online!
I’m 95% sure that the whole cellular is dangerous to the plane bit is BS, I’m sure that I could use my EVDO card during the flight and not have any problems. So, should I risk it tomorrow on my flight home? Well, that 5% chance that I’m wrong means that there’s no way I’m going to be on the web during my flight tomorrow. I wouldn’t want to be a terrorist!
3 comments
Jeff Barr
March 1, 2006 at 10:11 pm (UTC -7) Link to this comment
Phil, I am jealous that you have an EVDO and that I don’t…
I’m in agreement with you that there’s probably not much of risk here. First of all, there does seem to be a general concern about devices with transmitters. There’s always an off chance that any device could interfere with the planes navigation, communication, or flight control systems. Given the low power nature of most of the devices, I’m pretty skeptical. One interesting risk is that the devices in isolation might be fine, but that combinations of frequencies (as emitted by multiple disparate devices) could cause problems. I don’t have the right words to explain how radios convert the high frequency signals down to audio, but there is apparently an off chance that this could be an issue.
This morning I was listening to a podcast interview with Bob Frankston today and he admitted that he surreptitiously leaves his GPS receiver on, apparently feeding into a recorder so that he knows where he has been. So far he hasn’t caused the plane to crash.
Ok, now I’m on a roll. If the possibility of high frequency interference is such a problem, then why can I use my laptop? It is pretty easy to get a laptop to interfere with an AM radio, so there’s a case of real risk. What about laptops with built-in WiFi?
By the way, I’ll throw this question out. Has anyone, anywhere, ever seen anyone use an AirFone? I fly a lot and I have never seen anyone even touch that phone, except for a curious toddler or two.
Ok, I had better stop now!
Phil801
March 1, 2006 at 10:24 pm (UTC -7) Link to this comment
Jeff,
Maybe I can get Provo Labs to sponsor an EVDO card for you!
Thanks for your thoughts on this, I’ve heard about the transmitter being a concern – in fact I think I heard about it from you. That does make sense, but as you pointed out – it begs the question “Why allow computers at all?”. My computer has built in Wi-Fi and if I turn it on on a plane it is definately trying to find networks.
I don’t know much of anything about radio signals, but I do understand how it would be possible to get them mixed up. But, does cellular fall into that? There must be a million cell phones in use in New York right now and it’s not causing a problem.
No, I have never used an AirFone – although I did play with one for a while once wondering if I could hack it.
Court Kizer
April 20, 2007 at 2:51 pm (UTC -7) Link to this comment
I’d just like to point out that only one cellphone is ever known to “possibly” be able to effect a planes GPS signal strength. It was a 4 year old samsung (at the time the test was done 2 years ago), when the FAA tested 500+ devices. There is no way short of a 20megawatt transmitter that you can mess with the planes avionics. However it’s nice to have them off, there is ALWAYS someone who abuses their cellphone every second until 5 minutes after they were supposed to shut-up and stop talking.