iPhone not allowed on airplane!!!

I've found that different airlines have different policies regarding the use of mobiles in Airplane mode: some allow it, and others don't, for no good reason that I can see. Unfortunately, you are at the mercy of whatever carrier your on, and they would argue that if you don't like it, then don't travel with them. The lack of a standard is frustrating for the public, to say the least.

Mythbusters isn't always correct. GPS is very easy to overwhelm, for example.

It is impossible to test every situation. Just because someone doesn't find a problem in their test, doesn't mean it won't exist. The proof of a radiation problem is often empirical (and sometimes catastrophic) in nature.

If you keep up with the anonymous [NASA ASRS reports volunteered by pilots|http://asrs.arc.nasa.gov> you'll find many cases where airliners have experienced problems with onboard personal devices.

My favorite submittal is the jumbo jet that several times tried to land on autopilot in near zero-zero conditions. Twice they got near the runway and each time the autopilot suddenly dropped them fifty feet or so and they had to do a go around. Finally they figured out that someone in first class was using her cell phone each time they got close to call her friends to say they were landing. The third attempt succeeded after they took it away from her. There are lots of other examples.

As for cell / wifi in the sky, they use a thousandth of the normal power and are tested per aircraft.

But as the OP stated, this is not about whether it's a problem or not. It's known that about 15% of passengers are too stupid or lazy to turn off their phone on each flight. It's about the perception that the airplane mode doesn't work on the iPhone.

This sounds like something Apple should take up with each major airline. [Read more|http://abcnews.go.com/Business/BusinessTravel/story?id=2073047&page=1&Busi ness=true].

Unfortunately, the Pilot has every right to order you to turn off any phone regardless of weather or not an airplane mode. His reasoning may be faulty (which is what I feel it was), but he is in the right. Capitan's/pilots call is the final authority.

Jeff -

There are a number of threads that have discussed this issue from the past.

Certain phones, including the iPhone may, and I emphasize have been known to emit high levels of magnetic interference. As a result, airlines in many cases, rather than separate out specific phones have made it easier on employees to just generally say 'any smartphone' rather than to separate cell phones based on severity of their magnetic emissions.

No such experience recently just travelled (1/15/2008) with British Airways to/from Switzerland, London and back to the States. The British Airlines flight has an airline magazine indicating which devices are approved with its airline. iPHONE with Airplane Mode "On" was an approved device per the list of devices.

LOL!!

This is clearly "policy" statement and not a real issue.

Its sooo dangerous that all the airlines are eager to allow wi-fi and cell phones usages during a flight. The catch is service differentiation between airlines and additional revenues collected for flight. Not interference with the flight software or hardware.

JetBlue has started (I think, if not will very soon) allowing use of wi-fi during their flights and American is getting ready to initiate the service by this fall.

I had a flight attendant tell me once that Palm PDA caused 9/11 few years ago. Imagine that!!!

There is no point in arguing with irrational policy. You know, the one that also says no GPS device can be turned on while on-board during a flight. I don't know of a pilot that does not use one.

These policy will change, albeit slowly. Just as you can now use your cell phone as soon as it touchdowns on the ground while taxi back to the gate. Remember when we could not use it until the door was opened at the gate....

They busted this whole myth on Mythbusters . They showed cell phones do nothing regardless if the cell is off or on, in or on a airplane . Just thought would throw that in there for some fun .

The ban on cell phones on aircraft is designed to force passengers to use the expensive in-flight phones.
BUSTED
It was found that cell phone signals, specifically those in the 800-900 MHz range, did intefere with unshielded cockpit instrumentation. Because older aircraft with unshielded wiring can be affected, and because of the possible problems that may arise by having many airborne cell phones "seeing" multiple cell phone towers, the FCC (via enforcement through the FAA) still deems it best to err on the safe side and prohibit the use of cell phones while airborne. http://mythbustersresults.com/episode49

Message was edited by: crossfire129

I just flew from Ontario, CA to Reno, NV to Denver, CO then a few days later from Denver, CO to Las Vegas, NV to Ontario CA. Almost the entire time I was in the air, I was watching episodes of "Lucy: The Daughter of the Devil" on my iPhone and I was never questioned about it once. So it may just be whatever airline you were on.

Either way, as somebody said earlier, its is kind of the captains discretion. At this point, you cant travel with more then 3 oz of liquid and even then, it has to be in a plastic bag so we really can't be that shocked when they ask us to turn off our big expensive equipment that emits RF signals which are believed to mess with airplane computer systems (though Mythbuster's proved this not to be the case).

It happened to me a couple years ago when I was listening to itunes on my SLVR. I showed the flight attendant that it was in airplane mode and he got really rude with me and said if I didn't turn the phone off immediately he was going to seize the phone. I think some of them are just jerks and like to flaunt their control and authority over the passengers and it has nothing to do with airline safety.

MobileDev wrote:
Mythbusters isn't always correct. GPS is very easy to overwhelm, for example.

My memory of the episode in question demonstrated exactly that, Cell phones can cause interference - which is why the FAA (I believe) bans them. The myth was that cell phones are in fact safe and they are disallowed to force you into using a airfone which is more expensive. Now they were not able to test it in the air and their tests were not targeted toward devices with airplane modes on them, but mythbusters did show exactly what you claimed they did not.

Sorry about the experience, but flights from Germany are often the culprits of this policy -- and it seems to be randomly enforced. I have never been asked to turn mine off on any flight from/to Paris or London, but I was from/to Berlin.

Eh, it turns into music listening flight instead of a tv-watching flight, not a big deal.

But it is true that individual airplane pilots have sole discrection of the policies on their own flights. Even some of the flight attendants disagree with them, but really, there is no choice. What the captain says is what goes.

KLM doesnt allow you to use iPhones either, even in Airplane mode

Like i said i was putting it up there for fun . and thanks for the input and story 8^)