When boarding a plane, what happens if you forget to switch your phone to airplane mode? A pilot shared his thoughts and reminders for passengers.
With technological advancements, many people no longer prioritize setting their phones to airplane mode while flying. However, this pilot shared a video on social media explaining why “airplane mode on your phone is not a conspiracy theory.” Since the pilot shared it on December 3rd, the video has garnered over a million views.
The pilot mentioned that if you forget to switch your phone to airplane mode, “the plane won’t fall out of the sky,” but “it could potentially interfere with the pilot’s headset.”
During flights, using airplane mode on phones is mainly to ensure safety and compliance with regulations. While modern aircraft can withstand electronic interference well, signals from personal electronic devices could still disrupt the plane’s navigation and communication systems.
Dan Bubb, a professor at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, historian, and former airline pilot, told Newsweek, “The pilot is correct. It might interfere with headsets, but it won’t cause the plane to crash.”
Bubb explained, “We ask passengers to switch their phones to airplane mode because they could interfere with the radio altimeter.”
When phones are not in airplane mode, they actively search for cell towers to stay connected. At cruising altitude, phones may attempt to connect to multiple towers simultaneously, which could interfere with ground-based cellular networks.
The pilot in the video mentioned that if you forget to switch your phone to airplane mode, “it’s not the end of the world,” “the plane won’t fall out of the sky, and it won’t even interfere with the onboard systems.”
He then added that if there are 70 to 150 passengers on the plane, even if only three or four people’s phones attempt to connect to signal towers, “it will emit radio waves.”
He described how using phones not set to airplane mode could cause interference when receiving instructions from ground personnel.
“This could disrupt our headsets used to receive important commands. These radio waves could interfere with the radio waves the pilots use in their headsets,” he said. “I had just started getting directions, and there was a very annoying buzzing in my earphones that sounded like a mosquito buzzing near my ear.”
Internet users responded positively to the pilot’s sharing. One person wrote, “Thank you for the explanation. Now I will remember to turn on airplane mode.”
Another person said, “Thank you, a few years ago I stopped taking airplane mode seriously. I’m sorry, I will do better now.”
When you activate airplane mode on your phone, it loses the ability to connect to cellular networks, WiFi, or Bluetooth. This means you cannot make or receive calls, send messages, or browse the internet. However, you can still use your phone to take photos, listen to music, play games, and do any activities that do not require a signal or internet connection.