The reason why cabin crew tell you to put your phone in flight mode on a plane

For years we thought that putting our phone in flight mode stops its signals from interfering with the plane’s, however we’ve just found out that that’s not the case at all.

In fact, the real reason as to why cabin crew ask you to turn your phone on flight mode has nothing to do with your safety onboard and everything to do with annoying your pilot.

According to a pilot on Quora, not putting your phone in flight mode can make a “bzzzt-bzzzt-bzzzt-bzzt-bzzt” noise in your pilot’s headphones and drain your phone’s battery really quickly.

“You may have heard that unpleasant noise from an audio system, which occasionally happens when a mobile phone is nearby,” Nikita Schmidt wrote.

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“I actually hear such noise on the radio while flying. It is not safety critical, but is annoying for sure.”

While your phone’s signal is too weak to bring a plane down, it uses more power mid-air searching for a connection with each tower it flies over, and in turn, drains your phone’s battery and gives your pilot a massive headache.

Not only is it disruptive to your pilot trying to focus on flying you from A to B safely, it can interfere with your pilot receiving information from ground control.

These days inflight cellular service is mostly provided, which uses very little power and allows you to communicate on your device without any disturbance.

Onboard Wi-Fi is even weaker and more efficient, never having been reported to have interfered with pilots’ radio signals.

So the next time flight attendants tell you to turn that phone on flight mode, you might just want to do it for “common courtesy.”

“By switching your phone to airplane mode you show your appreciation to the people doing their job to get you where you want to be,” the pilot says.

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