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Why you're really asked to switch to flight mode on a plane

It’s probably one of the rules that we hear, but don’t really hear, every single time we board a plane.

Please turn your devices into flight mode or off during taxi, take off, and landing.

As soon as the cabin doors are closed and boarding is completed, cabin crew will generally do the rounds and tell people to switch off their phones.

But these days with modern technology many feel they can flout the rule because they don’t believe it is actually needed anymore. One pilot has revealed however that it is in fact still important. And it has more to do than just a static interference on their radios to Air Traffic Control.

Photo: Getty
Photo: Getty

“The whole ‘turn off the cell phone’ thing doesn’t matter 99.99 per cent of the time,” a pilot posted on Reddit. “However, it’s that 0.01 per cent of the time that we worry about.”

He said that most phones these days, including iPhones and Androids, don’t operate on the same frequency as the equipment used on planes.

“But it’s that one guy with the cell phone made in Mongolia in 1996 that is going to ruin it for everyone,” he continued.

Photo: Getty
Photo: Getty

The pilot said it would waste too much time to specifically go through everything that will or won’t interfere so they have a blanket rule for everyone.

“[We] could we spend more time going through everyone’s electronics and saying ‘You can use this, this, this, and this but not that unless we are over 14,500 feet’.

“But A.) It would take forever and B.) you wouldn’t remember it or get it right.

“So please, turn the damn thing off when we’re landing the plane.”


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