I just got back from a flight (Phoenix to SLO (CA)) and during the preflight, everyone on the plane I could see was on their phone. The flight attendants started giving their safety tips but did not mention putting phones on ‘airplane mode’. They, then, proceeded to walk down the isle to check everyone’s seatbelt with many passenger’s phones, in use, in their lap. These same folks used their phones during most of the flight. They were not being covert, they were in plain sight.
Airplane mode certainly is. It’s an FAA requirement to give the airplane mode speech.
But airplane mode only turns off the cellular radio. The WiFi and Bluetooth are fine to use aboard.
In fact many airlines have removed the seatback screens in coach, or are in the process of doing so. Those things cost weight and money. Now that everyone brings their own screen, all they need to do is provide a Wi-Fi base station for you to connect your device to, and then their on-board content server will stream audio or video to your phone. It’s flat astonishing how much content they now have onboard the plane.
Many airlines also offer off-board internet service. Some free, some free to frequent fliers, and some charging $X by the hour or flight. You can’t make a voice call over it, but you can sure surf the internet, do your email, or texting, or post on the Dope.
All with airplane mode on and hence your cellular radio off.
Yes you definitely should have it on on a plane (and they still tell you). Many planes provide Wi-Fi these days as either a perk or a charged amenity so everyone is often still on their phones or devices.
I also use airplane mode when in Europe to ensure I don’t accidentally activate my international roaming.
Yeah, I understand that. But, for instance, the lady next to me sat down, pulled out her phone and started doom-scrolling. It’s possible she logged on the Wi-Fi base station, but I didn’t see her. I was waiting for the announcement so I could gently steer her to putting her phone on AM.
And maybe everyone did it as well, but sure didn’t appear that way. I know two things for sure - there was no announcement of putting your phones on AM and the young woman across the aisle was definitely talking on her phone occasionally.
On iPhones / iOS, this is a relatively recent change. It’s only in recent iOS versions that airplane mode didn’t also block Bluetooth (I’m not sure about WiFi).
On the flights I’ve been on, the in-flight announcement says to put the phone in Airplane Mode and select the airliner WiFi network to connect. (I think one reason you want to have your phone in Airplane Mode is that doing so extends the battery charge, since the phone isn’t trying to connect to the cellular towers 35,000 below you.
I use it routinely to mute the phone, when the phone really must be muted no matter what. (This in addition to turning the volume all the way down.) Could this ever fail? The concern is not alarms I may have set, but calls/texts/Amber Alerts/what-have-you.
The latest ICAO recommendations I’ve read have put the onus on individual airlines to develop a policy based on a risk assessment. Some European airlines still require phones to be fully turned off when flying low visibility approaches with an automatic landing. My employer doesn’t go that far, we just require devices to be in flight mode, we do have a procedure to follow if we suspect we’re getting any interference though.
Maybe? Depends on your phone and settings. It could fail if you combine:
A phone with multiple volume levels (like many Androids), and you don’t mute all of them or correctly engage Vibrate mode
A phone that keeps wifi on in airplane mode
A wifi that you’re already connected to, or a remembered one you’ll soon connect to
An app that receives a notification over that wifi connection and causes a ring
Some phones have a “do not disturb” mode that would probably be safer than airplane mode. On some phones the vibrate switch / toggle might also be enough.
If you really want to be absolutely sure, just turn it off.
I appreciate this, you’ve burst my bubble of silent confidence! And yeah, there is a DND mode which I can use, hadn’t thought of that. I just figured: you’re in an airplane at 30,000 feet; Aunt Griselda calls out of the blue; plane plummets to the ground; therefore Airplane Mode has got to work, or they wouldn’t let you take your phone onboard.
Basically tell people to turn their devices off and the cabin crew will physically check each passengers device is turned off. I’ve never had anything like it though. I have read incident reports from B717 crews who suspected they were getting interference from devices, but it’s impossible to confirm after the fact.
I don’t fly that much, but I do use Airplane Mode on my phone fairly regularly. Mostly when up in the mountains or out in the woods where there is no signal available. Really saves the battery, especially when camping for multiple days.
Many people now use the text to speech feature of their phone to send texts, post on the Dope or Facebook, write emails, etc. Which looks / sounds similar to making a voice call unless you’re paying close attention.
Switching gears …
The original motivation for airplane mode wasn’t to protect the airplane from your RF emissions. It was to protect the ground cellular infrastructure from trying to handle signals coming from airplanes. Which might be clearly “heard” by towers miles apart. Which would confuse things.
IME it’s easy to get a decent cell signal while taxiing or close to the ground. But real hard once you’re more than a few minutes after takeoff & before landing.
So the whole affair seens like a bit of a charade. The regs exist, there’s no upside to the bureaucracy to cancel them, and so they persist.
I’ve been on flights with my phone in Airplane mode and on the airline’s WiFi and still received phone calls. I let them go to voicemail. I assume the call completed using WiFi calling.
