Do you turn off phone on a flight because you are told to?

This guy gets it.

One thing that a lot of people forget is just how sodding old many aircraft are. When mobile phones first came on the scene in meaningful numbers, it was indroducing possibly dozens of randomly-placed small portable radio transmitters into the cabin, and the kit onboard had never been tested for it's ability to cope.

Safest answer - turn the phones off.

As time passes, testing standards are defined, more modern kit arrives and is tested and certified as safe, the rules have been gradually relaxed.


Or, you can be a selfish tt, refuse and loudly proclaim it's a breach of your civll liberties to be without whatsapp for a few hours.

Trust the science!

I used to, havent bothered last few times.

Seems like this is along the similar lines of "don't use your phone at the petrol pumps due to the risk of explosion" bks!!

Nothing to do with the battery in the phone. It's the risk of an RF discharge. Ever put something metallic in a microwave?

the petrol station thing has been properly mythbusted in the past. I think everyone understands an abundance of caution when new technology and its effects are not well understood, but I think most people have also noticed that out of date/misguided caution / best practices hang around for a very long time and an awful lot of people don't just blindly "do as they are told" when something no longer makes sense.

I'm quite surprised at the couple of hyper agressive rants on this thread when, pretty much every other response has been calm, measured, and honest. The general response seems to be, "sure, I've left it on, don't think about it much" rather than "f-you, I'll leave it on if I want to, Its my right!"

There are some very easily triggered folk on here.

More over, they want you to pay attention to what you're doing when handling gallons of flammable liquids.

We've known for ages now that the biggest risk with mobile phones is distraction (not to say there aren't other risks too).

The problem is that if you perceive a problem, then the casual "don't think about it much" is just as baffling or annoying as the more vitriolic response.

I don't see a problem with turning my phone off if asked to do so by the cabin crew. It's their plane, they probably know more about it than i do, and the impact to me is minimal so why wouldn't i comply with their request? Seems petty to try and think you are getting one over on the man, or somehow superior to the "sheep", by not turning it off.

If there was even a 0.00000000001% chance of this happening, do you think passengers would be allowed to keep their phones with them on flights?

What I mean is that the petrol companies banned the use of mobiles on their forecourts, claiming it was because of explosion risk. Then that was then shown to be a load of bks, so instead of admitting they were wrong in the face of the evidence, they instead dreamed up another reason (i.e. being districted) to justify their initial position (and by justify, I mean save face).