Too many travelers believe that if they don’t toggle on the airplane mode setting for their phone while flying, they are creating a potentially deadly situation. Once all passengers have been boarded and the aircraft doors are closed, every phone on board is supposed to have airplane mode enabled. With this setting turned on, the phone’s radios are turned off, shutting down connectivity options such as cellular, Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth. Some will tell you that this is done to prevent interference with the plane’s navigational and communications systems.
Even though your plane won’t fall out of the sky, there is a good reason to have airplane mode turned on while flying
A U.S. Army veteran who goes by the name PerchPoint on TikTok agrees that if you fail to turn on airplane mode, your phone is not going to fall out of the sky. However, there is the possibility that if only three or four passengers are trying to connect to a cellular network, the radio waves from these phones can interfere with the radio waves of the headsets being used in the cockpit for communications. PerchPoint compares the interference caused by passengers’ phones to a mosquito’s buzzing sound and calls it “annoying.”
This could be a big deal if the weather or other issues are leaving a pilot with limited visibility. Under such a scenario, the pilot relies on information from the ground that is being relayed to him over his headset. So if interference from smartphones prevents the pilot from hearing instructions from the tower, the result could be catastrophic. The FAA says that cellphone use is only allowed in flight if it doesn’t affect the safety or communications of a plane.
Airline passengers in the U.K. and EU aren’t required to put their phones in airplane mode while flying. Several airlines in Europe allow passengers to send texts and make calls during a flight because starting in June 2023, EU member airlines are forced to equip their planes with a “picocell.” These are portable cell towers.
No airline passenger has ever been jailed for failing to turn his phone on airplane mode
Even though no one has ever been jailed for not following the rules regarding the use of airplane mode on airline flights, some passengers have been fined, and at least one was kicked off a plane for arguing with a flight attendant in 2018 about whether her phone was in airplane mode.
Not following the rules might not cause the plane you’re on to fall out of the sky. But as we’ve pointed out, it could make things a little harder for the pilot under certain weather conditions. The last thing you want to do for the pilot whose skills you’re counting on to get you safely on the ground is make it more difficult for him to do his job.
