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Calling for Trouble
The Travel Critic · October 19, 1999

So now it's supposedly safe to use cellular phones on a plane. So what?

Airlines should still prevent the use of portables on board. And while they're at it, they ought to remove those overpriced onboard phones, too. I'm tired of having to listen to the guy next to me kvetching away while I'm trying to get a little shut-eye.

But many frequent fliers have gone through the stratosphere in the wake of a recent report in the Wall Street Journal suggesting that carriers are banning cell phone use not because of safety, but for profit.

"I'm angry because once again, the airline industry has shown me that they do not trust me with the truth," says Bill Mattocks, a Denver software consultant. "I feel a bit like a fool, because on this issue, I have stood with the airlines. If they say that cell phone use is dangerous, then I obey the rules. I used to get furious with selfish and self-centered fellow travelers who blithely ignored the rules, and even ignored direct requests to turn off their phones. Now, it appears that the selfish yuppie travelers were right. There is no real danger."

In that case, the only danger is that we'll enrich the phone carriers that charge six bucks a minute to make a call from a plane. But if the airlines were colluding with GTE and AT&T to force passengers to use the phones they install onboard, you'd think they'd be doing a better job.

An engineer at Airfone tells me business isn't exactly brisk. "No one is getting rich from Airfones, and our revenue in general has dropped significantly over the past 24 months," he says. "Our staff is at skeleton levels. This whole thing is very bad timing."

So what about safety concerns? Fact is that a lot of pilots are uncomfortable with the portables, or any other electronic devices for that matter, being powered up during a flight. Heather Baldwin, editor of Aircraft Interiors magazine and herself a pilot, says there are a lot of anecdotal stories about the technology interfering with navigational equipment.

"Something will go wrong and the pilot will ask if someone on board has a cell phone turned on. And sure enough, someone will be talking on the phone, and when they turn it off, the problem is fixed," she says. "If that happens just once or twice, that's enough for me."

John Levine, author of The Internet for Dummies and a student pilot, says that even though everyone knows the frequencies that avionics and phones use are different and that safety issues are therefore unlikely, he supports the airlines' conservative approach. "You can't just pull over if you hear an odd noise under the hood," he says.

Levine says there's another compelling reason to limit phone calls on planes: It screws up the cellular network. Indeed, another industry source confirmed that many networks' fraud detection systems cut off calls made from the air because the plane is traveling too quickly. The networks are often configured to interpret a fast-moving user as one that's up to no good.

I still think cell phones can be hazardous, and I know they can be irritating. I feel that you do not have a right to indiscriminately chitchat at 36,000 feet, not at a time when transit authorities are considering banning cell phones in trains and in other public places. You do not have the right to turn your seat into your personal office. Can't passengers put the phone down for a few hours in the name of civility and politeness?

I know flight attendants would support a cell phone ban. Jill White Downey, a veteran flight attendant for Northwest Airlines, says she's seen more than a few passengers curled against the fuselage with a cell phone so she would not see them. "Recently, when I asked a passenger to turn his cell phone off, he stuck his fingers in his ears," she complained.

If they can ban smoking on flights, they sure can zap cell phones as well. If not for our own safety, then for the mental health of the passengers seated next to the callers.

Christopher Elliott is a travel commentator and author of A Bridge to Nowhere: A Year in the Florida Keys. All e-mailed questions may be edited, condensed or republished at the site's discretion.