Ask HN: What are the consequences if you don't put your phone into flight mode?

5 points by jamiegreen ↗ HN
Do consequences/dangers exist (If any), or does the pilot just hear that annoying "da da da" noise in his/her headphones?

5 comments

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very very little, while they make out that its all scary there is no way that theyd ever let something off the ground that could be brought down by a few rouge radio waves. id wager that on most any flight youve been on there were one or two people who didnt turn their airplane mode on
rouge

Small nitpick: you probably mean _rogue_, rouge alludes to red (powder).

People can call you, and that's just awful.
The moment you take your phone off flight mode, the plane will nose dive steeply until all meet their doom.

Unless of course you put flight mode back on again.

With the current digital phones there is almost no chance of the phones interfering with the airplane's operations. When phones were analog their frequencies did live in some of same ranges as the plane's equipment.

Analog phone used lower frequencies to cover longer ranges. Back then we had of fewer towers so you had to use lower frequencies. The lower the frequency the more ground you can cover, the better reliability. Airplanes used the similar frequencies for all the same reasons.

Now both planes and phones use better equipment with better FCC oversight on was frequencies and transmission type each uses. Airplanes rely more on satellite communication then terrestrial towers which further helps to prevent radio communication collision.