Technology

The article is crap, but it is correct in that you don't need to use airplane mode. I would, however, advise to still use it purely to preserve battery life of your device as otherwise it will very aggressively keep scanning for networks and drain it.

"You have a reminder set for 5pm today," my phone said.

"A reminder? What is it?" I asked.

"It's a notification to ensure you don't forget something, but that's not important right now," the phone replied.

Then I remembered I'd left it in Airplane! mode.

I think it's still worth doing so your phone isn't rapidly trying to connect and disconnect from nearby cell towers as you ascend and descend. Maybe there's already protections in place for this case but it makes sense that it could add a lot of unnecessary strain on certain cell towers.

Uneducated writers thinking using phone during flight is the same thing as using phone on the ground. It's not.

Phones won't interfere with sensors and stuff on airplane. That much is true. However pilots need to communicate with all kinds of airport staff over FM radio and there, since it's an analogue signal, phones can cause that familiar disruption. It won't destroy equipment, but you will annoy pilots and might prolong departure time. Same thing when landing, you are coming from no signal zone and all of the sudden 100 phones starts talking at the same time when pilot is receiving instructions from the airport.

This is why you can talk during flight, but not takeoff.

I used to turn Airplane Mode on during my LSD trips many years ago, pretty useful.

Airplane mode is a blessing. If the OS is trustworthy (i.e. FOSS Android) then it actually works, it turns off that crappy unprivate cell connection and you have anonymous Wifi only.

It saves battery and you can use your phone without anyone being able to track you easily.

Btw Google hides the GPS quicksettings toggle for a reason, edit the shortcuts and add it.

Ive always forgotten to set this anyway. No planes taken down so far (but it will drain your battery)

More importantly, you don't need to be on an airplane to use airplane mode.

Last time i forgot and the phone connected to “aeromobile”. Would have cost me a packet if i had left roaming data on

Why don't they just call it "avoiding people" mode instead

Then why flight attendant says "switch your devices to flight mode"? It was a week ago in domestic european flight.

In my country, 2G phones could interfere with radios with that da-dada-da-dada sound. I know people who have personally had that happen to them while trying to land airliners and it made listening to ATC more difficult.

I don’t think it’s an issue anymore though.

All the comments about technical details and practical details...

Are we forgetting that when dealing with millions of people, plus bureaucracy, in a potential death risk, it's worth being slow and cautious about relaxing former safety rules.

That was my understanding, that once upon a time it was legitimately feared that mobile phones could caused accidents (and thought they had indeed caused one). So, besides the other issues people have highlighted in the comments, to walk back from the safety rule of turn-them-off is a slow process.

Commercial air travel is not known for going, "ah, it's probably fine, don't worry;" except in the case of emergency exit door bolts.

I feel like this has been common knowledge. Airplane mode is more about "we don't want some asshole talking to their client on the phone while we are trying to do the safety briefing and take off"