Research: Mobile Phones Disrupt Aircraft

threeturn writes "Another contribution to the ever-popular "mobiles on planes" topic. Every time this is discussed on /. lots of people say "there is no danger - its just the airlines trying to make a buck on their skyphones". Well, now the UK Civil Aviation Authority has done some research which shows mobiles on planes do disrupt safety systems and interfere with compass readings and other navigation equipment. Also reported by the BBC. So do us all a favour and switch your mobiles off next time you fly."

Comments

Re:I think this is good

[Anonymous Coward]

Abuse? Get over yourself, butthead. Find a girl - maybe she can help you mellow out a bit. Newsflash - an airplane is not a library, and someone talking on their cell phone is not "abusing" you. What a loser.

Re:do you even get reception?

[ray-auch]

That would be the one which flew into the ground shortly after for as yet unknown reasons, right ?

Here we go again...

[crashnbur]

When are we going to stop fueling the terrorists' minds with ideas we can't (or don't want to) defend against? I mean, geez, it's enough that they use plastic knives... now they're going to use their cell phones against us!

("And, of course, all terrorists read slashdot." -- Clarissa)

Re:Upgrades do need to happen, although...

[ChristTrekker]

I couldn't agree more. The bailouts were nothing more than massive wealth redistribution. (Much like subsidized housing, subsidized health care, subsidized drugs, etc.) One more example of how totalitarian and socialist the USG has really gotten.

There are only two things standing between you and your freedom: Democrats and Republicans.

Re:frankly they shouldnt

[untaken_name]

So an aircraft designed and built today, should be safe against a product that won't be invented for another 20 years? That uses previously unassigned freq range. That does things not conceived when the aircraft was built.

If the airplane is designed to be used for 20 years, then *yes it should.* Otherwise, it should not be specced for a 20 year life span. The fact is that the rate of change is only speeding up. If you aren't going to think about possible problems which haven't been invented yet and how to mitigate them, you shouldn't be designing your product to last 20 years. I mean, it's not like the engineers designing commercial airplanes had NO IDEA what interference was. The military was shielding its cables back then, and I'd expect Boeing knew about it. You don't have to know the *device* that's going to cause interference to know that it is possible and design around it. It seems hard to believe that cellular phones would be approved by the FCC for general use if they produced ridiculous amounts of em interference. If planes are *that* sensitive, then my irrational fear of flying seems a bit more rational. :)