The myth of cell phones interfering with nav systems has been around for years. Now it seems some wireless devices actually may interfere with the systems, the EFIS anyway. Some carriers are not convinced.

BBC News - Airlines told to change cockpit screens in Boeing planes

I don't know about wireless signals and the like but I do have a sorta personal experience which has left me a little wary about electronic devices and flying.

Was on a solo flight and quickly noticed an irritating pulsing noise in my headset. I put it down to a dodgy intercom connection between the plane and my headset. It was a minor annoyance , a pulsing beep every twenty seconds or so.

When I reached over to zip up my flight bag in order to secure the cockpit before embarking on some stalls. I noticed the tell tale flashing light of my bluetooth headphones which I had neglected to switch off after my walk to the airport.

Sure enough, every time the headphones tried to poll my phone, my aviation headset beeped.

Multiply that by a couple of hundred passengers with phones and I can see it causing problems.

If you have a couple of hundred passengers in your cockpit, I suspect you have more problems than Bluetooth. If they're outside the cockpit, the signal level from a Bluetooth device should be negligible.

In either case, we flew Air Canada Cheapo recently and their in-flight entertainment system was to download movies via wi-fi. Clearly they don't think it's a problem.

Mobile's have been cleared in Europe...

BBC News - Airlines cleared for mobile phone use during flights

...but I do hope the testing has been rigorous.

+1 and woohoo!

Does it have any affect on the whole being told to switch it off during take off and landing?

Umm, *not* a good thing. Having some morons nattering away, probably at too loud a volume on a phone, in a tin can for 6+ hours will not be pleasant. Upside would be when they get their bill and there is Bhell and Robbers insane roaming charges. In fact, I'd not be too shocked to see them come up with a special "Airline charge" to cover the cost.

I thought the take off and landing thing wasn't so much to do with interference, but more to do with making sure you're alert, obviously at take off for the safety demonstration, but probably due to these two times being where it's more likely issues could occur?

All of this .....


It never ceases to amaze me the number of people who willfully ignore the safety demo.

Yes the bit on how to do up your seatbelt is bit cruddy but ask those people which exits they can/can't use in the event of, say a ditching on water, and they wouldn't have a clue.

It's not that surprising. The chances of surviving a crash are minimal. If there is a Captain Sully type miracle landing, there's probably enough time to pass the info around. And certainly once you have a general idea that the masks come from above and the lifejackets are under the seat, there's not really that much to watch. Apart from the stewerdesses of course.

simply not true. The vast majority of air crashes are survivable, somewhere between 50 and 70%

Your premise of "there being time to pass the info around" is totally flawed and presumes that the pilots have time to communicate the situation to anyone. Personally I'd rather they spent their time flying the plane until it isn't flyable anymore.

Some planes are designed to float "tail heavy" or nose up. Open the back doors and you flood the entire plane before anyone has chance to get out. I couldn't tell you which ones of the top of my head which is why I also steal a quick glance at the card.

personally I'd like the emergency drills hammered home a little more forcibly. Explaining to people just exactly WHY it is so damn important to get that oxygen mask on, rather than just sit and stare at it uselessly ( as has been known to happen when they fall accidentally) and maybe if the people on the Ethiopian plane that went down paid a little bit of attention and hadn't of inflated their life jackets inside the plane, they may have been able to swim down to get out and not drowned.

What about vibrators?

As I board - no matter what seat I'm sitting in - I always count the rows between where I'm sitting and the exit in front of me by touching the seat in each row as I walk down the aisle. Then I count the rows to the nearest exit behind as well. I've flown hundreds of times in my life but still watch the safety demonstration and read the safety card every time.

Oh, and as for the phones on a plane, I don't really want or need to hear someone else's phone conversations at 30 000'.

not planning on finding out thank you

And you sir, should not be encouraging me

won't someone please think of the children??

Some good points in the last paragraph, but I don't think the survivability is so high for an actual crash (maybe if you include ditching). This website suggests survivability in the 2000's is a mere 24%.

Accident statistics

NTSB has it much higher

http://www.ntsb.gov/doclib/safetystudies/SR0101.pdf

Come on Zoe, don't make me read the whole report! What's the stat and what's the page?