Hands-On Tech 283 Transcript
Please be advised that this transcript is AI-generated and may not be word-for-word. Time codes refer to the approximate times in the ad-free version of the show.
Mikah Sargent [00:00:00]:
Coming up on Hands-On Tech, let's take a look at airplane mode. Hello and welcome to Hands-On Tech. I am Mikah Sargent, and today we are taking your tech questions and answering them. And this one is important. It's a question that I think, you know, anybody might have. It's a question that I've certainly had in the past, and this one comes in From Gene from Billings.
Mikah Sargent [00:00:33]:
So let's take a look at the question. Gene writes in, hey Mikah, flying home last month, the guy next to me left his phone on the whole flight texting away and the plane did not fall out of the sky. So what's the deal with airplane mode? Is there any real engineering reason for it in 2026, or is it a rule nobody's bothered to retire? And what's actually the smartest phone setup when you fly? Gene from Billings, Montana. Well, Gene, first and foremost, I want to thank you so much for taking the time to write in. If you have questions for me out there, you can email me. hot@twit.tv is how you get in touch. But let's start with the short answer. Can you tell there's a bit of a format at this point? So, Gene, it's, it's, it's not theater per se, but it's important to understand that Airplane mode was not actually about the airplane.
Mikah Sargent [00:01:30]:
Instead, it's more like runway mode or cell tower mode. Let's talk about what, what in the world is going on here. So we gotta go back to the origin story of why cell phone use was banned on planes. The rule actually predates smartphones, if you can believe it. The FCC banned in-flight cellular use back in 1991, and that's older than some of us are, uh, not to protect the planes, but actually to protect the ground network. Okay? So a phone at 35,000 feet has line of sight to dozens of cell towers at once and can light them all up simultaneously, and in doing so, it can gum up service for people below. That is is the real problem. And guess what? The ban is actually a real regulation that still exists to this day.
Mikah Sargent [00:02:31]:
If we look at, uh, 47 CFR, Prohibition on Airborne Operation of Cellular Telephones: Cellular telephones installed in or carried aboard airplanes, balloons, or any other type of aircraft must not be operated while such aircraft are airborne. Meaning not touching the ground. When any aircraft leaves the ground, all cellular telephones on board that aircraft must be turned off. The following notice must be posted on or near each cellular telephone installed in any aircraft. Bum, bum, bum! Yes, so it's been around for a while, and it talks about interfering with the plane, right? No, uh-uh. That is an explanation that came from aviation regulators As a precaution, and it is precaution because as far as I was able to determine, there is no documented case of a passenger's phone bringing down or seriously endangering an aircraft. If you are curious to hear more about kind of the history of why it happens, why the rules are there, and then what happens if you do skip it, There's a guide from Autopilot that says, do you have to put your phone on airplane mode? And here's what actually happens if you don't. Now, that is due to 2 separate rules, the FCC rule since 1991 and the FAA rule that came later.
Mikah Sargent [00:04:01]:
So again, the FCC banned cell phone use on aircraft in 1991 because they worried about ground network interference. When your phone is up there, it gets to see all of those towers instead of just one or two. So the cellular network below is going, what in the world is happening? With a plane full of 200 active phones that are bouncing between these different towers at 500 miles per hour, they were really concerned that this could cause an issue. The FAA rule, it's different, and it has to do with the navigation and communication system. So it actually didn't come until later, and it was basically a concern, not much else. Other than that. Now, that said, in 2013, the FAA did relax the rule. It allowed passengers to use devices in airplane mode throughout the entire flight, including takeoff and landing.
Mikah Sargent [00:04:56]:
Before that, they did ask you to power them down. So I don't know about you, but let's just, let's just, let's just get close for a second. I know there have been a couple of times where I forgot— To? Turn on airplane mode, and everything was fine. It's fine. But you do need to follow the rules that are provided to you. And so, you know, you may be wondering though, given that it doesn't cause this huge issue, given that it's not really a big problem, then why hasn't the rule been retired? Well, aviation safety culture is such that you don't wait for disaster to strike before you set things in place, before you set rules in place. So because researchers have documented phones producing stray emissions that can happen in bands near GPS, then regulators said, look, no, we're just going to make it so that you can't use a phone out of airplane mode. And then Europe actually shows On the other hand, that the rule can evolve when the engineering catches up because the EU approved onboard 5G using what's called a picocell, which is a tiny cell tower that's inside the cabin.
Mikah Sargent [00:06:14]:
And so your phone isn't going, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, to every single tower that's on the ground. Instead, it's staying where it is on that actual plane. So it eliminates the tower problem. It eliminates the interference question. The US unfortunately hasn't gotten there yet, so domestic flights still have that rule in place. As far as your seatmate goes, his phone didn't crash the plane. I mean, you didn't crash, right? It did, however, spend the flight— Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey! Screaming, and it did so at max power trying to find towers. So that means that his battery was running low by the time he touched down if he wasn't plugged in.
Mikah Sargent [00:07:01]:
And at the very least, he was heating his device up, which is no good. And it was for nothing because cellular barely works when you're at cruising altitude. It barely works unless there's a Pico cell on the plane. And then of course, he was also violating FCC rules. He was refusing a crew member's instructions to comply, and that is where there are penalties. So the realistic outcome in the end, a flight attendant says, hey, you know, stop. And you hope that that's where it ends, but it doesn't always end there. So just be aware of that.
Mikah Sargent [00:07:35]:
As far as your second question, excuse me, Jean, uh, you asked about sort of a smart setup for flying, right? Well, first and foremost, just when you head in, flip on airplane mode when the door closes. And then if your device disables Wi-Fi upon airplane mode being turned off, which is not the case for many modern phones, then you can use Wi-Fi, then you can use Bluetooth. Those are allowed and they both work fine and have no impact on cell towers. Plus, what's great about it is with airplane mode turned on, your battery when you touch down is going to be a lot More charged because your phone wasn't looking for towers the entire flight and going, I see that one, I see you, I see you, I see you, I see you. Again, moving so quickly through the air as all these towers are made available. So the one other bit of advice I'll give, of course, is try to download your movies, your playlists, your favorite books, your boarding pass, all of that before takeoff, and then you don't really have to worry about the fact that you're in airplane mode or wonder if the plane has Wi-Fi. So the bottom line here is that it's a real rule. It's actually a set of rules, but the folklore doesn't quite— I mean, it's folklore.
Mikah Sargent [00:09:00]:
It protects the ground network first, and then technically protects your phone battery second, and then the plane third. Because again, there's no evidence of a plane— a passenger phone, I mean— causing a crash. There's simply been some instances of phones producing signals close to that of GPS. So you and your seatmate weren't in danger. He was just rude for not following the rules, and also, of course, uh, had a phone that was being rude to all the cell towers that were flying by, and his phone was being rude to its own battery. So airplane mode plus Wi-Fi plus Bluetooth That is the blessed combo, and we thank you. Thank you so much for writing in, Gene. My pleasure to be able to answer your question.
Mikah Sargent [00:09:54]:
My pleasure to be able to bring you all this show every week. If you have questions for me, email me, hot@twit.tv. That's how you get in touch, and I'd love to hear from you. Thanks so much. I'll catch you next time for another episode of Hands-On Tech. Bye-bye.
