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Cell phones and pagers really dangerous to avionics?

I am *NOT* advocating that we allow cell phones or pagers to be turned on during any part of any flight - however, does anyone know of any documented avionics (flight radio and navigation) problems caused by personal transmitters in the cabin? Anbody know how "Myth Busters" debunked this without themselves violating some airline's policies? By the way, general aviation pilots routinely carry cell phones AND USE THEM from the air. Granted, their avionics is usually pretty unsophisticated compared to commercial airlines. The only avionics that I know of that would care would be ADF's (which get directional information from any modulated signal). NOBODY uses ADFs any more. It would be like trying to use a sextant for positional information on the ocean. If you were using it, you'd be trying to prove something to somebody - not for the accuracy of its information.

Public Comments

1. The TV show Mythbusters did an episode on this and they had no effect They did note that the problem DID EXIST when cellphones were new ( documented ) but electronics have come a long way since then
2. Yes but only slight interference but who wants to risk it at 30,000 feet
3. The true reason that cell phones are banned on airplanes was that the FCC requested that the FAA impose the ban. With the way cell phones continually contact cell towers to establish that link, imagine just one phone flying at 600 mph and contacting all the towers along the way. Now imagine several on one plane. Now imagine several tens of thousands crisscrossing the country. The fear is that the cell network would backlog and collapse. So in a way, cellphones are dangerous to electronics, just not on the plane (in fact, I just flew to Chicago, and pulled out my phone just to realize that I left it on the whole flight. Oops.) I mean, if it truly did have an effect, then we'd have planes falling out of the sky all day, every day, because someone forgot.
4. General Aviation pilots do not ROUTINELY use cell phones during flight, as it is both illegal and unsafe. To answer your question, cell phones and other tranciever/reciever devices are not allowed becuase it is possible for them to interfere with modern flight instruments. EFIS (Electronic Flight Information System) is a delicate tool, run by a computer, and while I don't remember if it has been documented, we discussed in my Integrated Flight Operations class at college, an incident of EFIS just shutting off suddenly, when a group of reporters on a private flight were interviewing some famous person, and the person let out some major news and all the reporters called their publishing desks while airborne to try to get the story out first.