Study Says Cell Phones Can Interfere With Planes 469
3x37 writes "The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette website reports a study by Cargenie Mellon University researchers found that cell phones do interfere with airplane cockpit instruments. The researchers came to this takeaway conclusion: "devices like cell phones 'will, in all likelihood, someday cause an accident by interfering with critical cockpit instruments such as GPS receivers.'""
Re:Hmmm... (Score:3, Informative)
Any CMU students willing to use their library access and a photocopier for the expansion of human knowledge before the IEEE article is published in March?
Re:'Consideration'? (Score:2, Informative)
If not, however, there's no point in lifting the ban, as an unassisted cellphone call has an extremely poor chance of getting through above 2000 feet (which would be during landings and takeoffs...precisely when you cell calls can be most hazardous).
You are right about phones not being able to place calls above 2k feet (I fly a cessna and was once able to receive a call at 1.5k, but not higher). However, do you know what a CDMA phone does when it has difficulty communicating with a cell tower? It increases its signal to full power (.6w if I'm not mistaken). How convenient, since like you mentionned, when at 2k, you're in the flight's most critical phases (i.e. takeoff and landing). Something it would not have to do with AirCell, because the "cell" is so much closer to the phone (i.e. it is in the plane). CDMA is perfectly at ease at -90dBm. Not much power required here.
Re:Hmmm... (Score:3, Informative)
It won't cause GPS to give bad information (Score:3, Informative)
Cell phones DO interfere with aircraft radios though, and I have first hand experience. We were about to line up for an ILS approach into runway 08 at Ronaldsway. The pilot, a friend of mine, was making his first ever night IFR approach (it was raining, and cloud bases were about 800 feet, so it wasn't a really sticky IFR approach but it was still in the clouds and at night). I was monitoring his progress from the right seat. Sadly, he had forgotten to turn off his mobile phone.
His wife decided to phone him just as we were intercepting the localizer for 08. All audio on the aircraft was obliterated by this noise: 'bip b b bip b b bip b b bip b b bip b b bip brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr' (if you have a GSM phone on European frequencies, it's likely you've heard this noise - cell phones interfere with almost *any* radio and audio equipment in Europe probably due to some harmonic off the frequency used) until he managed to shut the thing off. It was extremely distracting to say the least, and obliterated any chance of hearing any ATC instructions. It did *not* however intefere with the localiser or glideslope receiver which showed normal indications throughout. I took control while he found his phone to shut it off.
I doubt a cell phone will ever cause an accident due to disruption of navigational equipment (especially GPS) but it may do due to distraction at a critical phase of flight (especially if it occurs during a high workload situation, or perhaps when some unrelated emergency is occurring).
Re:About that GPS receiver (Score:3, Informative)
Airliners today use not only GPS, but INS (inertial navigation - which requires no external inputs once it's set running) as well as old-fashioned VOR receivers. They can also ask for radar vectors off ATC if all their navaids were to fail.
Comment removed (Score:4, Informative)