Hisham Sarwar
Turning on a cell phone during a flight is not an innocent mistake; a flight attendant suddenly swoops in as soon as you are caught using an electronic device. There are so many discussions that revolve around the airline industry for this issue. The airline industry is evolving with the changing technology but still the electronic devices are asked to turn to airplane mode during transit.
There is no clear information that how cell phones can endanger a flight by affecting the aircraft’s navigation and communication system. But some research has been done to explain the reason behind the safety concerns. When the airplane is more than 10,000 feet in the air, our cell phone signals create innocent diversions. A strong signal is sent as the cell phone signal bounces off multiple towers causing congest to the ground networks. But there have been no such accidents up till now dues to this issue.
The real problem is the signal interference with an airplane which burdens up the pilot with more work during important phases of the flight such as a plane’s takeoff and landing. These are the phases of a flight when the pilot really needs to concentrate.
But with the technological advancements, these issues are becoming less and less prominent. According to European’s Aviation Safety Agency in 2014, the electronic devise are a no more threat to the safety of the flight. This is the reason that many airlines such as Aero Mobile and On Air, allowed in-flight calls for assessment through onboard cellular network companies. On Air serves major airlines and is known for connecting more than half the world’s A380 fleet.
But till now, FAA is no in favour of voice communication on cell phones and prohibits all such actions during a flight. The agency has banned the use of any device transmitting signals especially cell phones that are used for voice communications. Cell phones are a big reason for causing electronic interference. According to FAA, although civil aviation authorities have not reported any confirmed cases of cell phones affecting the flight safety with on board cell phone base stations.
According to an aviation safety expert Allison Markey, the electronic devices of today are protected from interruptions. Technology still has not enabled the pilot sitting in the cockpit to see any phones with cellular connection to WiFi are turned off. These current rules were adopted almost twenty years ago in order to protect the airplane against the radio interference to the cellphone network on the ground.
This interference can however be prevented by technology that can be installed directly on an airplane. Many countries have already deployed this technology successfully. This technology if adopted will enable the airline carriers to freely develop any inflight phone usage policy they want but with applicable rules. It will be the airline’s decision for customer’s whether to permit the use of data, text/voice service during a flight. But even with this technology, people would prefer not to make voice calls during a flight. This would cause annoyance to neighboring passengers and this is the main reason that there is still a ban in US for voice communications during flights.
Via: Business Insider
