Professor Sven Bilen - Brief Explanation on Airplane Mode !
The huge increase in air
travelers and ever more full — and oversold — flights have made air travel more
trying. But it has gotten better in one aspect that most of us in the
smartphone-addicted public appreciate: Cellphone use is no longer completely forbidden
on planes.
We used to have to turn our
phones off and store them when we flew commercially, but now can keep them on
as long as they are in Airplane Mode. Why? What's changed? Weren't planes
supposed to fall out of the sky should some forgetful flier leave their phone
on? And what really would happen if everyone started yakking away during
cross-country flights?
Connecting Calls via Cell Towers
First, some basics on how
cellphone systems work. When you make or receive a call, your phone looks for
the closest cell tower to connect to. Each tower services an area (a
"cell") that may be as large as 50 miles in radius over flat terrain,
or smaller than a mile in radius in hilly areas or dense urban zones.
you move from one cell to
another, say on your daily commute, your cellphone call gets handed off from
one tower to the next. It requires a fair bit of work on the part of the
overall system to make these transitions seem seamless to you. There are also
built-in expectations about how often these handoffs should happen (not very),
the speed of the user (highway speeds at most), and your altitude (somewhere
near the ground).
Cellular use on a plane at
cruising altitude breaks all three of these expectations. Simply put, calls in
the sky may interfere with the proper functioning of this complex system —
particularly if a couple hundred passengers all had their cellular radios on —
such that users on the ground are affected.
However What’s the
Hazards -
That all sounds like a
service issue, not a safety one. What would happen if someone kept their
phone's cellular functions on while enjoying the view at 30,000 feet? Likely,
nothing. And that's a good thing, since even when their use was completely
banned, people left them on all the time, whether intentionally or not.
But there is a non-neglible
risk that using your phone could interfere with critical systems on the plane.
Although most modern phones
no longer do this, GSM (2G) phones were notorious for interfering with other
electronic systems. Former owners will recall the "buzz" you heard in
your stereo or speakerphone when making a call. Now, imagine this buzz being
picked up by a sensitive navigation system. You don't need to be technically
minded to understand that might not be good.
Researchers found that
electromagnetic emissions from personal electronic devices can interfere with a
plane's systems. Specifically, those in the 800-900 MHz range can interfere
with unshielded cockpit instrumentation. This is a particular issue on older
aircraft. Newer planes are designed to deal with the huge amount of electronics
the flying public takes onto airplanes.
Airplanes are incredibly
complex machines, filled with electronics and critical systems required to
perform the modern miracle that is flight. The thing about complex systems is
that it's usually impossible to test how safe they are under every conceivable
contingency. Given how many new phones come on the market each year, it would
be challenging to test how each and every model might interfere with the
systems on each aircraft in the commercial fleet worldwide. So airplane
manufacturers work to "harden" the critical systems on their planes
to make them less susceptible to interference from electronics.
Turn your devices
Airplane Mode ON
Cellphones used to be just
that, a phone. You used it to call and text people. Arguably, the
"phone" is now the least used function — think about the time you
spend making calls versus everything else you do with it. So frequent fliers
chafed at having to put their phone away for hours.
Although the FCC governs the
use of cellular phones on planes, the Federal Aviation Administration governs
the use of electronic devices on planes. If a device doesn't interfere with the
aircraft's communication or navigation systems, it can be used on planes.
People were using laptops, cameras, video players, tablets, electronic games
and so on, so why not smartphones? After all, this single device now performs
the functions of all those others. Hence, the FAA ruled they may be used, but
only if the cellular radio was switched off. Enter Airplane Mode.
By adding Airplane Mode,
device manufacturers have made our lives easier. When you flip on this feature,
it turns off your phone's cellular radio so you can't make phone calls or text.
It also turns off WiFi and Bluetooth, but both of those can be re-enabled and
used on planes.
Airlines continue to
innovate. Delta, for example, offers free access to certain messaging apps like
Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp, which work over WiFi. But cellular texting,
which needs the cellular radio, is still prohibited.
Of course some people still
want to be able to make phone calls while in flight. Sadly for those of us in
the flying public who don't want to sit next to someone loudly blabbing away
all the way from New York
As for how to keep the rest
of us from erupting like Samuel L. Jackson, "Enough is enough! I've had it
with these [daggone] cell phones on this [daggone] plane!"— perhaps
airlines will create "cell-free zones" like the ones in trains and
other public places.
Sven Bilén is a professor of
engineering design, electrical engineering, and aerospace engineering at Pennsylvania State University
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