Ask Arthur: Phones in flight

Q: Does my phone really affect an airplane in flight? I sometimes leave it on by mistake, and there never seems to be an issue.

A: The Jury is out on this one. We hear plenty of anecdotal evidence of pilots seeing instruments behaving erratically due to phones being used in flight. But that’s often what it is: hearsay. According to the Civil Aviation Authority in the USA, scientific research does show that mobile phones can interfere with aircraft equipment and pilot’s headsets, but the emphasis is on “can” rather than “does”.

Consider this: on any given flight, 9 out of 10 passengers are likely to have smartphones with them. The average passenger does not bother to switch off their phone or put it in flight mode.  In some cases, the handset is in a bag or purse and simply forgotten. In others, passengers simply don’t want to lose contact and carry on using their phones surreptitiously to chat with contacts even as the plane is taking off.

If using a phone at this stage affects an aircraft’s operations, every single flight is likely to be affected. We simply don’t see that.

An argument sometimes raised is that the real reason for requiring phones to be switched off is that cabin crews need our full attention when giving safety instructions. But then they should also demand that books or magazines be closed. I guarantee you’ve never heard that instruction.

I am not advising you to ignore instructions from airplane crews. You are legally obliged to do so. But, by the same token, if you left your phone on by mistake, it is unlikely to cause a plane to malfunction.