Cell Phone Usage: Passengers Versus Flight Attendants

Anyone who’s ever taken a flight anywhere in the past decade knows the rules: turn off and stow away cell phones and other devices that transmit a signal during flight, don’t pull them out until you’re at the gate.

Despite these rules having been in place for years, many people are feeling a “need” to be able to use cell phones during flight. Even with some airlines providing wi-fi access for a fee, customers still want the ability to text or talk while in the air. A flight attendant recently lamented that she had to remind 16 passengers on one flight to turn off their cell phones…and those were only the people who were blatantly using their cell phones.

The issue is so pertinent to travel that the Mythbusters tested to see whether cell phone usage could bring down an airplane. While they declared the myth busted, why test it in the first place? Cell phones have been known to interfere with flight instruments, and if too many were being used at once, no one is quite sure what would happen. This begs the question, why take the risk just to place a call to someone who can probably wait until you reach your destination? {Gadling} With smartphones gaining in popularity, it’s not impossible to imagine that some people who pull the phone out to play a game or listen to music also try to sneak in some talk time or texting.

Cell phone usage during a flight is currently banned in United States Airspace due to the fact that additional technology, a picocell, is required on board an aircraft to make usage safe. Picocells are communication systems that provide connectivity over a small space, negating the need for cell phones to reach beyond the aircraft for signals and interfere with flight instruments. Of course, installing any picocells requires money, and with all the complaints from U.S. customers about fares and baggage fees, don’t expect a communications overhaul on existing aircraft. {Runway Girl}

But the biggest concern in the flight attendants vs. cell phones battle is how many people ignore their flight attendant’s instructions. Yes, she may be telling you to turn off your lifeline to the rest of the world for a few hours but you can live without it. Let’s put it this way, if she told you to reach for the oxygen mask that just dropped down, you’d probably listen to her. {Gadling}

Not to mention, cell phone usage in flight is also annoying to other passengers. It’s bad enough to suffer through a subway ride with an oversharer, 3 or 4 hours with an annoying conversation added to a screaming baby would be enough to make us revisit the idea of trains or a road trip. We don’t all want to hear about your bad breakup or what your gynecologist said. So please, do everyone a favor, and let the flight attendants have this one.