You Don’t Need to Use Airplane Mode on Airplanes | Airplane mode hasn’t been necessary for nearly 20 years, but the myth persists.::Airplane mode hasn’t been necessary for nearly 20 years, but the myth persists.
If airplane mode really mattered they wouldn’t let you even have a device
The idea that plane safety is tied to everyone together agreeing to and remembering to push a button on their devices is absolutely insane. You think that the regulating bodies that require multiple backups for every possible system also just trust that every passenger pushes a button and every flight attendant actually checks every passengers devices?
No I don’t think that. What words in my comment make you think I think that
That’s asinine. It’s like saying “If brakes really mattered, a cop would check your brakes before letting you drive to work in the morning”. Brakes are pretty damn important, but very few places (in the US at least) have any mechanism for ensuring yours are in working order even periodically.
Proper risk mitigation takes into account (at minimum) the likelihood of an event occuring, the severity of the event occurring, your willingness to tolerate a failure, and the cost associated with implementing corrections.
Airlines have an EXTREMELY low tolerance for any kind of risk that could conceivably lead to a catastrophic failure, so the fact that you’re allowed to have a device, despite potential safety concerns, comes from a combination of a few factors:
- The chances of some kind of major interference with flight ops happening are demonstrably pretty low
- People would likely push back quite hard on not being able to use electronic devices for entertainment on a flight.
- Most people comply with the request.
- Related to 3, there is little reason for airlines to change the rule, since cell operation is next to impossible in flight anyways, and wifi/bluetooth are not in the frequency range of concern.
Right, with that extremely low tolerance would come an extremely high bar of security.
For example, you can’t have lithium in the cargo, and can’t have compressed gas or knives in the cabin. And what do we see? They prohibit and screen for those things (to the best of their ability).
They wouldn’t let you have a knife if you promised to keep it in your pocket and not use it.
Therefore it is clear that, as the article states, airplane mode is not a significant factor for flight safety. Because if it were, they would lock up phones or have implemented a jammer or some other such adjustment
Risks exist on a continuum, and something not literally being forcibly banned doesn’t mean there is zero risk in that thing, just that the risk is lower than those things that are forcibly banned or that the risks can be mitigated in other ways.
Same reason you go through a metal detector to check for weapons before getting within half mile of a plane, but were left pretty much on your honor to not bring a Samsung phone with a spicy battery on board.
You know damn well I meant intolerable risk when I implied they wouldn’t allow them
I actually didn’t, which was the main reason I replied.
It’s fairly common to see people arguing as though a thing is either risky or not risky, without any sense of context.
That’s asinine. It’s like saying “If brakes really mattered, a cop would check your brakes before letting you drive to work in the morning”
This argument is also asinine. Cops aren’t in your car. If your brakes fail it isn’t their problem. Cops don’t give a fuck about your safety.
The airline crew are in your plane. If there was actually a safety risk they would absolutely do something about it because it affects them personally.
The reality is there is no safety risk which is why they don’t do anything. If safety was actually reliant on people turn on airplane mode then we’d all be fucked.
I remember once when I accidentally turned on my phone during a flight instantly the plane started to plummet out of the sky. The phone slipped out of my hands and I groped for it while people and service items flailed around the cabin as the plane tumbled. Finally I slipped out of my belt and grabbed it. With only 10,000 feet of altitude to spare, I finally managed to get the phone to go into shutdown mode by holding the power button down. The plane righted itself immediately, and I slipped the phone into my pocket quietly and kept a low profile for the rest of the flight.
That was close, wow. I really admire your composure in zero gravity.
It’s not only the myth, is the airplane crew reminding you of that every single flight. Both on takeoff and landing.
The mentions the reason why; it’s to reduce incidents of “air rage”. Air travel is stressful enough without having people yapping loudly into their phones.
I disagree. I don’t see the point of having my phone waste battery searching for a cell signal. Airplane mode saves your battery.
I could just turn my phone off entirely but then I can’t listen to music.
For me it has nothing to do with aircraft safety.
Battery saver/low power mode does the same purpose for me and I can just turn off my cell signal if need be.
If Airplanes were that sensitive to RF, terrorists would just be using that to down planes over major cities or during landings at airports.
The most amusing part is that I highly doubt any staff on a commercial flight is capable of telling if people have actually enabled airplane mode or not. It’s an honor system in a country where half of the people don’t even have the decency to try to mitigate the spread of illness.
It’s not that they don’t try to mitigate the spread of illness, it’s that they blatantly do the opposite.
At the end of the day, they just don’t care. If they really wanted to enforce this, there are much more effective solutions.
i doubt they care that much
Aeroplane mode is incredibly, incredibly useful, I use it a lot and I’m almost never on an aeroplane haha.
It works great as a poor man’s ad blocker.
DNS blocking has the same effect but allows you to stay connected
Yeah, I have that at home but never bothered to set that up when outside the house. This just lets me do whatever while waiting at the doctors office or whatnot.
Sir?
Use it if instructed to because many people don’t understand what airplane mode is.
Use it if you have 2G service still enabled on your phone as there is a very low chance of 2G interfering with certain plane components due to the higher power involved, though that is extremely unlikely, there’s no benefit to leaving it on. Also, you really shouldn’t have 2G enabled on any phone since it’s commonly hijacked to send unsolicited text messages or enable man in the middle attacks, etc., and few providers use it anymore outside of some low density areas and other limited uses.
Use it if you have 5G, for now, since there is still research being done on whether the telecom industry is correct that the new C-band frequencies they’re using won’t interfere with altimeters that use close frequencies. This can especially be worrisome for low budget wireless chips that don’t regulate their frequencies to spec on mass produced models. And poorly maintained altimeters that might not be well calibrated with age. The gap is small enough that it’s possible that there might be some interference in real world situations.
So, for the average person, it’s still worth telling them to just use it. There’s no benefit to having cell service turned on during a flight. The real issue is that airplane mode should really only affect cell signals now and leave WiFi alone since planes have WiFi now and a lot of applications share between devices with WiFi, and leave Bluetooth and NFC alone since they’re short range and low power and unlikely to cause issues. Just my opinion as an IT professional with electronics and wireless communication experience, but not an airplane specialist.
The real issue is that airplane mode should really only affect cell signals now and leave WiFi alone since planes have WiFi now and a lot of applications share between devices with WiFi, and leave Bluetooth and NFC alone since they’re short range and low power and unlikely to cause issues.
I’m not sure how common it is, but my S22+ will remember if I turn bluetooth or wifi on while in airplane mode, and leave them on in the future. That’s especially nice since I use a CGM that pairs to my phone via bluetooth, so I don’t have to worry about accidentally losing that connection.
Spot on about there not being any point in having cellular service enabled. You’re 6 miles up and traveling a mile every few seconds, so you might as well just shut that radio off and save a bit of battery power.
Airplane mode isn’t for them, its for me having a quiet moment.
A lot of things are annoying about flying but one of the top is when phones are ringing and beeping unanswered (or worse, answered) non-stop.
I think airplane mode is more for the sanity of the crew than anything having to do with safety any more.
Everyone should leave airplane mode on whenever and wherever possible.
Airplane mode is still useful for lots of other things. I’d be pretty upset if the feature was removed.
Believe it or not Vodafone will charge you for air and sea usage quite a lot. So be careful if you use them.
Imagine the number of plane crashes if this wasn’t the case.
I have to assume 90% of people on board don’t put it in airplane mode anyway.
That’s my philosophy as an engineer. Create policies/rules assuming dumb people will ignore it. Anything critical should not be something the average person can even touch.
So you’re saying my genitals are critical? Why, thank you!
That’s right my king/queen. Don’t let them touch your goods without earning it.
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I make it a point to play around with my phone during take off
If you have the Steam Deck you should be using Airplane mode. Wifi kills the battery, and as an added bonus - you can use your PC Steam Library and your Steam Deck simultaneously if one is on Airplane Mode.
I see at most a 1% difference with wifi on. It’s better but doesn’t “kill” from what I’ve seen. And not a lot of reason why it would.
Phones are a bit different (or at least used to be), as cranking up the transmitter power to try to reach towers, and other things that avoid sleep and cause extra usage really will make a big difference. Particularly higher power usage than normal when idle (i.e. screen off, etc). But for desktops/tablets/consoles, I don’t think we see the same thing. ESPECIALLY if they’re in active use.
