Ever wondered what might happen if you forget to put your phone on flight mode? While doing so won’t cause the plane to crash, it can cause an interference during a landing.
TikTok user @perchpoint, who is a pilot, shared a post recently explaining why the “airplane mode on your phone is not a conspiracy.” The clip has garnered over 851,000 views since it was shared on December 3.
The pilot said that if you forget to put your phone on airplane mode, the “plane will not fall out of the sky,” however “it does have the potential to mess with the headsets.”
Dan Bubb, a professor at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, who is a historian and former airline pilot, told Newsweek: “The pilot is correct. It could interfere with the headset, but will not cause the plane to crash.”
Bubb explained: “The reason why we ask passengers to put their phones on airplane mode is because they have the potential to interfere with the radio altimeter.”
The airborne use of cellphones is banned by the Federal Communications Commission and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) “because its signals could interfere with critical aircraft instruments,” warns the FAA.
“Devices must be used in airplane mode or with the cellular connection disabled,” the FAA says, noting that “you may use the Wi-Fi connection on your device if the plane has an installed Wi-Fi system and the airline allows its use.”
The pilot in the viral clip said that “it’s not the end of the world” if you forget to put your phone on airplane mode and “the plane will not fall out of the sky and it won’t even mess with the systems on board.”
However, if you have an aircraft with 70 to 150 people on board and the phones of even just three or four people attempt to make a connection to a radio tower for an incoming phone call, “it sends out radio waves.” These radio waves can interfere with the radio waves of the headsets that the pilots are using, he noted.
Bubb told Newsweek, “In many planes, because the pilots sit so high off the ground, when they come in to land, they can’t see the runway immediately beneath them, so they rely on what is called the radio altimeter.” There is a voice that will call out the altitude level as the plane approaches the runway.
Whether the plane is at altitude, say 35,000 feet, or approaching the runway to land, “it is always good for passengers to keep their phones on airplane mode until the plane has landed,” Bubb advised.
The pilot in the viral video also recalled a recent moment of interference he experienced on the ground while attempting to get clearance on which direction to go while heading towards a taxi way.
The TikTok user said, “As soon as I started getting the direction, there’s this really annoying buzz going through the headset and it kind of sounds like there’s a mosquito in my ear.”
He said, “It’s not the end of the world, but it’s definitely pretty annoying when you’re trying to copy down instructions and it sounds like there’s like a wasp or something flying around you.”
The viral post comes air travel continues to show strong growth in the post-COVID-19 pandemic era, after grinding to a halt in the height of the outbreak.
The load factor—the percentage of available seats an airline sells on its flights—hit a record high of 86.2 percent in August, according to an October report by the International Air Transport Association (IATA).
More than half of Americans (57 percent) were reported to be preparing for winter travel, with the vast majority (96 percent) planning to travel as much or even more than last winter, according to the TripAdvisor study released in November.
The viral post also comes amid a pilot shortage, as the industry struggles to keep up with the demand for air travel.
Last year, Faye Malarkey Black, the president and CEO of the Regional Airline Association, warned a U.S. House Transportation and Infrastructure subcommittee about “the coming tsunami of pilot retirements.”
She noted that over the next 15 years or so, “nearly 50 percent of the commercial airline workforce will be forced to retire because they will reach the age of 65.”
According to Boeing’s pilot and technician outlook report for 2024-2043, the industry will require 674,000 new pilots to maintain the global commercial fleet over the next 20 years.
Newsweek has contacted the original poster for comment via TikTok. This video has not been independently verified.
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