Comments on: Ryanair won’t let me use ‘flight mode’

By: John

John — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 14:45:21 +0000

It's all nonsense. The main problem with phones being on in the air isn't the problems with flight systems. There's no way they would allow a plane to fly if its systems were so susceptible to RF that there would be major problems. The company I work for designs and builds systems that will be used to allow people to make calls and texts, and use WiFi from laptops and mobile phones while in the air so how could it possibly be such a huge problem for planes if we're doing that?

By: Mark

Mark — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 16:29:23 +0000

At 35,000 feet I tend to do what they tell me…. !

By: Mark

Mark — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 15:29:23 +0000

At 35,000 feet I tend to do what they tell me…. !

By: Mark

Mark — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 10:29:23 +0000

At 35,000 feet I tend to do what they tell me…. !

By: smstextnews

smstextnews — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 22:20:06 +0000

You're a very lucky man!

By: Anthony

Anthony — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 17:46:03 +0000

BA, Delta, Monarch and IIRC Easyjet were cool, Ryanair have never been. If I'm flying Ryanair I bring a book and a DS.

Funny thing happened on a recent Ryanair flight. I asked the girl next to me for the time (my phone has replaced my watch as well as everything else!) and she pulls out her phone and turns it on (obviously her phone had replaced her watch too). This was mid flight yet surprisingly the plane didn't fall out of the sky.

By: Ben Smith

Ben Smith — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 15:54:45 +0000

Speaking to an airline-type he tells me that problems have been witnessed and the biggest issue is that when things go 'screwy' eliminating the possible causes – not having any phones on is just another cause.

I'm perfectly happy to play by that rule – just miffed I can't use the device at all.

By: Mike42

Mike42 — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 15:25:26 +0000

Phones on planes is up there with phones on gas station forecourts....

Of course, if your phone is on you won't be so bored as to buy their expensive tat or read the dross as a bit of lite entertainment.

Phones on planes being dangerous is real tinfoil hat material.

/m

By: TerenceEden

TerenceEden — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 15:06:29 +0000

On every flight I've been on, as soon as the plane gets near the runway, the dit-dit-dit-dah-dah-dit-dit-dit of Nokias receiving text messages begins. People think they've switched their phones off, but they haven't.

We'd have seen thousands of planes fall out of the sky if phones were really that dangerous.

A good tip is to switch your phone to flight mode, stick your earphones on and place the phone in a pocket. To the rest of the world it looks like you're listening to any other MP3 player.

By: Mark T

Mark T — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 14:46:27 +0000

I agree with Martin and think that sooooo many people would start getting calls and texts if Flight Mode was allowed… They are most likely running a better say than sorry approach.

However you are correct, this will all change when they can effectively charge for it, in which case it will be please dont switch your phone off.

Ryanair are currently having so many problems with their new website that they would probably be better off fixing that first….

By: MartinSFP

MartinSFP — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 14:01:25 +0000

ThomasCook and BMI Baby both ban flight mode IIRC. It's probably because staff on the plane don't have the time/ability to check if you actually are using flight mode so it's better to ban all devices.

I hope Air France are okay with it for my 14 hour flight later this month. If not there's always the DS.