Continental Airline Tickets

Will a personal cell phone work during a commercial airline flight?

If I weren't prohibited from using my personal cell phone during a commercial flight, would it work? Could I call someone on the ground, maybe back at my departure place or where I'm headed, and they could converse with me? . Thanks Nigel as that's at the root of my question. I have doubts that those cell phone calls could have actually been made from the 9/11 planes. Nothing sure but a suspicion nonetheless. There's a lot on that day to make one suspicious. .

Public Comments

1. It would work alright, the air marshall's will be waiting for you when you exit the plane.
2. It would work (unless you're too far from a ground antenna or tower), but there are two implications:- 1. It might interfere with some of the aircraft's avionics. (Fairly unlikely, but possible). 2. Because you're high up the signal from your cell phone will be received by several cell phone towers instead of just one or two. The system then thinks your phone has been cloned and shuts down your service to protect you.
3. no they don't, you're 5 miles high traveling 500mph. even if you can connect to a tower it would be for about a minute tops. also there is still worries they might interfere with the aircraft's navigation.
4. Other answers have explained why cell phones are prohibited in aircraft, but to answer your principle question, yes, cell phones can sometimes work while you're flying. Remember Let It Roll or other stories from 11 September hijackings? Some people did use cell phones on those flights (and they crashed -- but the use of phones may not have been the cause).
5. The short answer is YES they will, sometimes! The altitude of the aircraft and the position of the cell towers and phones make it possible in many cases. One of the reasons the FCC doesn't want and doesn't allow cell phones to be used in flight is that they "trigger" multiple cell towers at the same time thus wasting a lot of abilities for other users. On the ground a cell phone only triggers one tower (the nearest). If thousands of cell phones were in use in aircraft they would be connecting to thousands of cell systems at the same time, that creates the real problem for the cell systems. They do work, but they do cause major issues when they do! Yes cell phones were used and calls made from aircraft on 9/11, and yes there are cell phones used from aircraft at other times as well. Here is the FCC posting http://www.fcc.gov/cgb/consumerfacts/cellonplanes.html I fly light aircraft and have inadvertently had a passenger (ok even me a couple of times) leave a phone on, they do ring and they do work during flight! I am also sure that there are a few other PILOTS who can confirm that they do indeed work during flight, they may not want to admit it !
6. On the ground, it should work with no problem. In the air, it might or might not work—the distance to the base stations on the ground is considerable, and the aircraft is moving rapidly, so there are no guarantees. If it does work, the battery will run down quickly, because the phone needs to use maximum transmitter power to reach the base stations at that distance. (Normally cell phones modulate the power they use based on the distance of the base station.) Cell phones do not interfere with aircraft avionics. They are prohibited because of an FCC regulation (not a FAA regulation) that doesn't allow their use in flight (any time the wheels are not touching the ground). The regulation is in place because it was feared that cell phones in flight would overload multiple base stations. This is now known to not be the case, but the regulation is still there. Air marshals will not be waiting for you simply because you used a cell phone in flight, nor will supersonic helicopters shoot down the aircraft if you turn on a cell phone in flight.