Mythbusters

"Please turn off all electronic devices including cell phones, walkmans and laptops during take-off and landing."

This is a typical announcement made while a plane is preparing for take-off or landing. But do electronic devices, especially cell phones, really interfere with airplane instrumentation and communication systems?

While travelling back from Vancouver to Ottawa on WestJet, I happened to come across the show Mythbusters on The Learning Channel. The mythbusters team was addressing this question. They built a box to test out this theory. They used various bandwiths. They found that a cell phone that was turned on didn't interfere with the instrumentation readings. However, if the cell phone was used (i.e. received or transmitted a call), this did interfere with the airplane instrumentation. That means the pilot wouldn't have accurate information and readings to know where he was flying (think Die Hard 3, I think).

However, the Mythbusters crew then wanted to test it in an actual aircraft in flight, but to do this was against federal law. The team were fortunate to have one pilot agree to let them test their theory (but while they were on the ground, of course). This airplane used was very high-tech and had protection to shield the plane's instruments from other electronics' frequencies and influences. So, this experiment showed that cell phones of varying bandwiths did NOT affect the plane's instrument readings at all.

So, in conclusion, the team thought this myth was busted. They were frustrated that they really couldn't test this myth in the air. However, they did wonder why airlines still asked people to turn off all electronic devices even though it seems this myth isn't true. Conclusion? Well, it's better to be safe than sorry (especially with all those new models of cell phones coming out ... you never know which one could cause problems).