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You Don’t Need to Use Airplane Mode on Airplanes | Airplane mode hasn't been necessary for nearly 20 years, but the myth persists.

You Don’t Need to Use Airplane Mode on Airplanes | Airplane mode hasn't been necessary for nearly 20 years, but the myth persists.::Airplane mode hasn't been necessary for nearly 20 years, but the myth persists.

Ilgaz , (edited )

It will be there forever since it got stuck as a "offline" button. People go offline for many reasons and they look for a "plane" icon.

Since when did you see/use a diskette or a dot matrix printer? You use their icons.

NeatNit ,

To be fair, printers today come in all shapes and sizes and don't necessarily look that different from the icons I see.

Coreidan ,

I disagree. I don’t see the point of having my phone waste battery searching for a cell signal. Airplane mode saves your battery.

I could just turn my phone off entirely but then I can’t listen to music.

For me it has nothing to do with aircraft safety.

UsernameIsTooLon ,

Battery saver/low power mode does the same purpose for me and I can just turn off my cell signal if need be.

lipilee ,

I use it at home. Preserves battery.

nomadjoanne ,

Believe it or not Vodafone will charge you for air and sea usage quite a lot. So be careful if you use them.

ILikeBoobies ,

Last flight I was on had a no electronics at all rule

A person was told they couldn’t have their kindle out during the flight

shneancy ,

fucking hell, I'd think about leaving because having to survive the rabid child always behind me, that guy over there coughing the entire flight, that lady next to me who immediately started snoring, and the bi hourly "buy our perfume" plane wide adnnouncements would be hell without headphones

Alexstarfire ,

Simple. Bring a record player. Spin it by hand.

modus ,

Get yourself a Wind-up Victrola

corsicanguppy ,

the rabid child always behind me,

The one kicking the seat got to me on my last flight.

The plan was to inform the parent I used to be infantry and I was gonna start teaching his kid some new words if his kid didnt respect the airplane. But he clued in just in time.

eclipse ,

Name and shame the airline.

I fly a lot for work, internationally most of the time. Haven't seen this in many years.

ILikeBoobies ,

Air Canada - pre-covid though so that might be your many years

I flew many times with different airlines before that without this issue

KingThrillgore ,
@KingThrillgore@lemmy.ml avatar

Airplane mode isn't for them, its for me having a quiet moment.

nucleative ,

A lot of things are annoying about flying but one of the top is when phones are ringing and beeping unanswered (or worse, answered) non-stop.

I think airplane mode is more for the sanity of the crew than anything having to do with safety any more.

Duamerthrax ,

If Airplanes were that sensitive to RF, terrorists would just be using that to down planes over major cities or during landings at airports.

profdc9 ,

I remember once when I accidentally turned on my phone during a flight instantly the plane started to plummet out of the sky. The phone slipped out of my hands and I groped for it while people and service items flailed around the cabin as the plane tumbled. Finally I slipped out of my belt and grabbed it. With only 10,000 feet of altitude to spare, I finally managed to get the phone to go into shutdown mode by holding the power button down. The plane righted itself immediately, and I slipped the phone into my pocket quietly and kept a low profile for the rest of the flight.

emptiestplace ,

That was close, wow. I really admire your composure in zero gravity.

dutchkimble ,

I was sitting across the aisle from you and saw the whole thing unfold. To be honest, no harm no foul so you're all good, however I'm just thankful those were the 3G days because with 5G airwaves I'm sure it would have been a faster drop.

profdc9 ,

The problem with the 5G phones is that they effect the thought waves of the pilots and put them into a deep dive trance. I can't blame them for wearing those tinfoil hats. Modern aviation is not what they taught in flight school.

eclipse ,

https://youtu.be/pSlG_m-bbGM?si=iaAzX_pNlNBbdOnz

theyoyomaster ,

I’ve definitely gotten text messages at 35k feet on plenty of different occasions. Not a single issue with any systems on the plane from it.

filister ,

Imagine the number of plane crashes if this wasn't the case.

Frozengyro ,

I have to assume 90% of people on board don't put it in airplane mode anyway.

Potatos_are_not_friends ,

That's my philosophy as an engineer. Create policies/rules assuming dumb people will ignore it. Anything critical should not be something the average person can even touch.

suction ,

So you're saying my genitals are critical? Why, thank you!

Potatos_are_not_friends ,

That's right my king/queen. Don't let them touch your goods without earning it.

n3m37h ,

I make it a point to play around with my phone during take off

Patches ,

If you have the Steam Deck you should be using Airplane mode. Wifi kills the battery, and as an added bonus - you can use your PC Steam Library and your Steam Deck simultaneously if one is on Airplane Mode.

ripcord ,
@ripcord@lemmy.world avatar

I see at most a 1% difference with wifi on. It's better but doesn't "kill" from what I've seen. And not a lot of reason why it would.

Phones are a bit different (or at least used to be), as cranking up the transmitter power to try to reach towers, and other things that avoid sleep and cause extra usage really will make a big difference. Particularly higher power usage than normal when idle (i.e. screen off, etc). But for desktops/tablets/consoles, I don't think we see the same thing. ESPECIALLY if they're in active use.

bdonvr ,

Absolutely still turn it on though, or your phone will be pushing it's power to the max screaming for cell towers the whole flight.

But sure if you want to pop it on when you get close to landing, you can usually get a signal that low.

UndercoverUlrikHD ,

You'll have 4G and possibly 5G throughout the whole flight inside Norway. It's not uncommon to see people browsing Netflix on their flight.

lud ,

Do you mean Norwegian?

UndercoverUlrikHD ,

The country, not the company. I don't think Norwegian got 4G cell towers strapped to their airplanes

suction ,

You'll be lucky if they have seats.

lud , (edited )

So you get cell reception if you fly over Norway‽ That sounds unlikely to be true. Maybe it can happen occasionally like anywhere in the world but I highly doubt it happens often.

A private 5G network on a plane seems more likely but wifi is obviously more reasonable (Which I think all Norwegian planes have by default)

bdonvr ,

Interesting, I've never gotten any signal after the first 15 minutes or so inside the US.

UndercoverUlrikHD ,

Does the US have decent coverage? Over 85% of the land area in Norway is covered, 99,9% if we go by where people live, so you'll have coverage even deep into fjords or mountains up here.

poppy ,
@poppy@lemm.ee avatar

There are huge swaths of the US not covered. You could be driving between two cities less than an hour apart and hit dead zones.

UndercoverUlrikHD ,

That's wild. You got to be in a very remote place for that to ever happen here. Granted, there is a fair bit of competition between the three main telecom companies, and data coverage has been one of the biggest topics between them for over a decade.

poppy ,
@poppy@lemm.ee avatar

the size difference helps in Norways favor too I imagine (and probably shape too!)

UndercoverUlrikHD ,

It's certainly smaller than any American state, but for our population it's fairly big. The topology of the country also isn't very friendly to cell signals. 90+% of the country is mountainous/fjords. It's why coverage has been a big selling point, a bunch of people live on some random mountain side in the middle of nowhere.

From what I've heard, there isn't much competition in the US though, so I guess that plays a part. We got three companies independently building out their own network across the whole country.

n3m37h ,

Canada is no better. Shit my work is on the opposite side of the hill as our radio town and get fuck all for cell signal and the tower is less than 1km from me

//Should add that the mayor of our town made it impossible to rent out space on the water tower (which is at the peak of said hill) because after 2001 our town could be a target for terrorism.... I'm 200km from Toronto and 45 km away from a major military air base

BananaTrifleViolin ,

Not if there is a picocell on board - that's one of the major points of the article, including the EU mandating their installing on flights in Europe to enable people to connect.

However I agree with the airlines that lobbied in the US against this. It's going to be a source of air rage - people crammed in a small space do not want to listen to other people yapping loudly on cell phones or video calls. It's simpler to just ban it outright. Although I am sure the airlines also don't want to have to pay for data connections and their air staff be responsible for dealing with irate customers when the connection is out.

But airlines have already started monetising things by making WiFi available on board flights for a fee - that is already opening the door to calls. I suspect we'll end up with it as standard and a fight against exorbitant charges for connecting imposed by airlines.

itsnotits ,

pushing its* power

notannpc ,

The most amusing part is that I highly doubt any staff on a commercial flight is capable of telling if people have actually enabled airplane mode or not. It’s an honor system in a country where half of the people don’t even have the decency to try to mitigate the spread of illness.

simplejack ,
@simplejack@lemmy.world avatar

At the end of the day, they just don’t care. If they really wanted to enforce this, there are much more effective solutions.

user1234 ,

It's not that they don't try to mitigate the spread of illness, it's that they blatantly do the opposite.

0x2d ,

i doubt they care that much

kandoh ,

I'd never go through a US airport without my cell phone in a faraday bag.

suction ,

Mr Robot? Is it you?

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