5 ms·

Initially people assumed without evidence that the wireless signals from portable devices would interfere with avionics. It was the days where you could prophet

by mertd 2y ago

Initially people assumed without evidence that the wireless signals from portable devices would interfere with avionics. It was the days where you could prophetically "hear" that you are about to get a call or sms through your computer speakers.

TaylorAlexander 2y ago
Sounds like they did have evidence then...
akira2501 2y ago
> people assumed without evidence If you don't have evidence that emissions will be within acceptable limits and will not interfere with the planes avionics then you don't introduce things into life safety critical areas like planes. It's the same reason a captain can declare pretty much whatever they want on their plane and you as a passenger are _obligated_ to follow those orders. It's a felony if you don't. The captain doesn't have to present evidence just any concern that some action might interfere with the safety of his flight and that's the end of the discussion.
- fy20 2y ago
  The ironic thing is that during the same period, 110V powered electric shavers - which most likely spurt out noise all over the RF spectrum - were perfectly acceptable to use on aircraft.
  - pixl97 2y ago
    I mean I've never seen 200 people use an electric shaver for an entire flight. He'll, I don't think I've seen one.
    - macintux 2y ago
      So, uh, apparently I was unaware of this rule: I used one about 35 years ago. I was flying to Europe, and didn’t have a compatible power adapter when I landed in Helsinki, so I used the plane’s lavatory on the hop to Sweden.
      - tomcam 2y ago
        You monster
jjav 2y ago
> Initially people assumed without evidence That's like configuring a firewall with a default-allow rule. No, with any safety critical system you must assume there might be a problem until there is overwhelming evidence that there won't be.
abdullahkhalids 2y ago
That might be the original reason, but I think that the current reason for asking for flightmode on a plane is that cell towers near airports get overburdened, as every flight would result in every phone rapidly switching between a dozen cell phone towers.
- riffraff 2y ago
  I heard of this years ago, but wouldn't this be also a problem for cell towers near railways?
  - abdullahkhalids 2y ago
    That's a good observation. It seems it is possible to plan cell towers for this [1, 2]. But perhaps, tech has not been deployed everywhere for regulations to be changed. [1] https://www.quora.com/How-does-LTE-perform-on-high-speed-rail https://www.quora.com/How-does-LTE-perform-on-high-speed-rai... [2] https://www.huawei.com/en/media-center/multimedia/videos/2024/5g-train-anhui https://www.huawei.com/en/media-center/multimedia/videos/202...
albrewer 2y ago
> it was the days where you could prophetically "hear" that you are about to get a call or sms through your computer speakers When I was getting my private pilot's license in '07, my instructor put his cell phone in the Cessna's glovebox (which is just below the radio) and told me to call him. There was definitely interference throughout me ringing him, but as soon as he took the phone out to cancel the call, the interference went away.

by mertd 2y ago

TaylorAlexander 2y ago

Sounds like they did have evidence then...

akira2501 2y ago

> people assumed without evidence If you don't have evidence that emissions will be within acceptable limits and will not interfere with the planes avionics then you don't introduce things into life safety critical areas like planes. It's the same reason a captain can declare pretty much whatever they want on their plane and you as a passenger are _obligated_ to follow those orders. It's a felony if you don't. The captain doesn't have to present evidence just any concern that some action might interfere with the safety of his flight and that's the end of the discussion.

fy20 2y ago
The ironic thing is that during the same period, 110V powered electric shavers - which most likely spurt out noise all over the RF spectrum - were perfectly acceptable to use on aircraft.
- pixl97 2y ago
  I mean I've never seen 200 people use an electric shaver for an entire flight. He'll, I don't think I've seen one.
  - macintux 2y ago
    So, uh, apparently I was unaware of this rule: I used one about 35 years ago. I was flying to Europe, and didn’t have a compatible power adapter when I landed in Helsinki, so I used the plane’s lavatory on the hop to Sweden.
    - tomcam 2y ago
      You monster

jjav 2y ago

> Initially people assumed without evidence That's like configuring a firewall with a default-allow rule. No, with any safety critical system you must assume there might be a problem until there is overwhelming evidence that there won't be.

abdullahkhalids 2y ago

That might be the original reason, but I think that the current reason for asking for flightmode on a plane is that cell towers near airports get overburdened, as every flight would result in every phone rapidly switching between a dozen cell phone towers.

riffraff 2y ago
I heard of this years ago, but wouldn't this be also a problem for cell towers near railways?
- abdullahkhalids 2y ago
  That's a good observation. It seems it is possible to plan cell towers for this [1, 2]. But perhaps, tech has not been deployed everywhere for regulations to be changed. [1] https://www.quora.com/How-does-LTE-perform-on-high-speed-rail https://www.quora.com/How-does-LTE-perform-on-high-speed-rai... [2] https://www.huawei.com/en/media-center/multimedia/videos/2024/5g-train-anhui https://www.huawei.com/en/media-center/multimedia/videos/202...

albrewer 2y ago

> it was the days where you could prophetically "hear" that you are about to get a call or sms through your computer speakers When I was getting my private pilot's license in '07, my instructor put his cell phone in the Cessna's glovebox (which is just below the radio) and told me to call him. There was definitely interference throughout me ringing him, but as soon as he took the phone out to cancel the call, the interference went away.