Is using your cell phone on an airplane really dangerous? When you get in your seat and wait for the flowing passengers to be seated and ready for take off, you decide to send a quick email out before shutting off your phone. Meanwhile, the flight attendant barks at you to turn it off NOW! Is all of this really necessary?
There are concerns that cellular networks on the ground interfere with communications and navigation systems in the cockpit, although there is no hard evidence on this sort of interference ever happening. The FAA advises to keep the rules as is “in the interest of being conservative about safety,” said FAA spokesman Les Dorr.
Studies have shown that there is no real evidence of accidents caused by cellphones but that using them in flight can be more dangerous than was understood before. Authors of the 2003 study conducted by Carnegie Mellon University, in a 2006 article wrote, “the data support a conclusion that continued use of portable (radio frequency)-emitting devices such as cell phones will, in all likelihood, someday cause an accident by interfering with critical cockpit instruments such as GPS receivers.”
Even though there is no real evidence, why risk it? It’s like saying why wear the seat belt, you will probably arrive safely anyway. Well, what if you don’t wear it and something happens! Like they say, “better safe than sorry.”
