I’ve heard from airline pilots I know that often the crew up in the cockpit have their own cell phones in their pockets that don’t always get turned off during flight. And they’re certainly quite a bit closer to the avionics than the passengers.
Any big iron dopers confirm that?
And actually because they interfere with the provisioning topnotch GPS setup and radio room in the yacht owned by the CEO of the company that provides the airplane phones.
Not “quite often” but I’ve seen it at least ten times. Land, get the phone out of the bag…crap, still on and the battery is almost dead. Never noticed any affect on the airplane. Of course, I’m flying the trusty 727 which could probably fly through an EMP and keep on going.
Like money?
The airlines already allow cell phone use. You just have to use (and pay for!) the ones built into the seats. Airlines may be concerned about interference with the plane’s systems, but they really don’t give a crap about calm or annoyed passengers.
This is GQ — do you have a cite for this statement?
(I am still trying to remember where I read the article I referred to)
If the concerns you mentioned where valid, the airlines would not provide cell phones on board. If they were concerned cell phone use would somehow lead to passenger panic, they simply wouldn’t install them.
It should be pointed out here that airlines do not provide cell phones onboard their planes. They provide air phones, an entirely different telecommunications system altogether.
True.
But the fact they provide any type of phone means arguments against the use of personal cell phones must be based on technical reasons, not on issues such as keeping passengers calm or the annoyance factor.
I agree. I was taking no issue with that part of your statement; just addressing a minor correction in terminology.
When was the last time you used an airphone? My wife and I used one once a few years ago to coordinate our ride from the airport. The cost was outrageous: the Verizon Airphone service cost $4.99 per minute with a $3.99 connection fee. That fact alone probably limits the yack factor sufficiently.
I’m not saying that the “keep peace in the cabin” factor is the only reason; it’s just a different way of looking at it that made me stop and think. It might have been in some dude’s blog, not necessarily the most reliable source, but it made me question the foregone conclusion that the reason was strictly technical.
And your statement that they don’t give a hoot about the calmness of the passenger cabin is baseless. The flight crew needs to be able to maintain control over the airplane, and even if you think about it strictly in terms of money, the airlines don’t want to have to make unplanned stops to drop off mutinous passengers.