I’ve had the good fortune to be able to travel a bit lately - and consequently flown quite a bit. And I wondered about the warnings issued during flights, that during take-off and landing, all electronic devices must be shut down - and not turn on my phone at all. They didn’t say anything about turning off Bluetooth or WiFi on my PDA, though … Not that I did.
I wonder what’s the straight dope here. Is there really a risk? Seems a bit overkill to me - but of course, better safe than sorry.
What kind of risks could there be and why?
There are really no risks, the airlines want the passengers full attention if there is an emergency. Also, if there is an emergency, they don’t want laptops and other electronic devices flying about the cabin. Last flight I took there was a passenger that refused to shut off his Gameboy. 2 flight attendants asked, the co-pilot asked, has sat playing his game. The airplane was pulled back to the gate and a couple federal marshalls removed him from the plane. The idiot delayed the flight almost an hour.
Sometimes if your cell phone is near your computer you will hear noises coming from your speakers when the cell phone is communicating with the network. This same type of thing can happen on an airplane. The pilots don’t want the interference. Therefore, in regard to electronic devices they err on the side of safety.
I wouldn’t go that far. The problem with most of these reports is reproducibility. For obvious reasons, pilots are loathe to let passengers with suspect PEDs turn them on and off to see if the problems reoccur. But, there are enough incidents reported that it can be taken as a given that while the risk is low, it is nonzero.
Not that I did.