There’s a lot of safety precautions you must take when you sit on a flight, like putting your phone on airplane mode. But have you ever wondered what happens if you forget?
Getting on a flight can be an exciting experience.
You arrive at the airport, go through security then the world is your oyster until your gate information is announced and you need to find it. But when you get on the aircraft, things get a little more serious.
Flight attendants will ask you to fasten your seatbelt and put your windows up, as well as sit in an upright position. But you’ll also be asked to put all devices on airplane mode, now have you ever wondered what happens if you forget?
According to one pilot, if you forget to do this one task before take off, it’s “not the end of the world”. In a YouTube post, WKYC Channel 3 shared @perchpoint’s advice where he claimed it’s “not a conspiracy”.
He said: “This is just a friendly PSA the airplane mode button on your phone is not a conspiracy. So if you forget to put your phone on airplane mode, no it’s not the end of the world, the plane will not fall out of the sky and it won’t even mess with the systems on board.
“However, it does have the potential to mess with the headsets, if you have an aircraft with 70, 80 or 150 people on board and even three or four people’s phones start to try to make a connection to a radio tower for an incoming phone call, it sends out radio waves, there’s the potential those radio waves can interfere with the headsets the pilots are using.”
Meanwhile the pilot discussed a situation which happened in San Francisco where he experienced an “annoying buzz” with the headset which was caused by someone’s phone being on during take off. He explained: “And as soon as we started to get the directions, we got this really annoying buzz with the headset and it kind of sounds like there’s a mosquito.
“Not the end of the world but definitely annoying when you’re trying to copy down instructions and it sounds like there’s a wasp or something lying around you. So if you’re ever curious why you get put on airplane mode, that’s why.”
Since it was shared, it turns out a lot of people were thankful for the advice. One said: “That is excellent advice. Of course, I think we all know that not everyone heeds to the policy that all airline companies have during flight.”
Another added: “This is an FCC requirement and has zero to do with headsets. They don’t want everyone pinging towers along the route.”