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Pilot Reveals What Really Happens If You Don’t Put Airplane Mode On During Flight

The pilot revealed just how damaging it can be not to have Airplane Mode switched on during a flight.

It’s an instruction we all get given on board an aircraft, but have you ever stopped to wonder the implications of not having the flight mode feature turned on?

It turns out that it can be pretty dangerous.

And as the travel season continues, pilots and experts alike are warning people just how risky the situation can become.

As we’re aware, airplane mode disables wireless communication, such as cellular, Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth.

It’s most commonly used on board a flight, but others also use it to conserve battery life, or to prevent distractions.

But despite being a necessary feature in the sky, it’s estimated that a staggering 40 percent of passengers don’t use the essential mode, according to a 2017 study.

But here’s why that’s not a great idea…

One pilot took to TikTok to spread the word far and wide.

The pilot explained that, regardless of the number of passengers onboard, if a phone tries to connect to a radio tower, the radio waves can interfere with the radio waves of the pilots’ headsets.

He described the noise as a ‘really annoying buzz going through the headset,’ which isn’t helpful when trying to communicate with those on the ground.

The expert said: “It kind of sounds like there’s a mosquito in my ear.

“Like I said, it’s not [the] end of the world, but it’s definitely pretty annoying when you’re trying to copy down instructions, and it sounds like there’s just, like, a wasp or something flying around you.”

The Federal Aviation Administration’s website echoes this sentiment, and states: “Devices must be used in airplane mode or with the cellular connection disabled.

“You may use the WiFi connection on your device if the plane has an installed WiFi system and the airline allows its use.”

But he isn’t the only one to press how important the feature really is.

Former National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) Air Safety Investigator, Gregory Feith, revealed why Airplane Mode is so important.

He noted that signals coming off your device on an flight can ‘disrupt, a lot of the times, the navigation system, and even the ground proximity warning systems on an airplane.’

In a clip posted by Wired, he added: “The wires on an airplane are insulated from spurious signals, but you don’t want to take a chance, aircraft manufacturers don’t want to take a chance, and definitely the FAA [Federal Aviation Administration] and other certifying authorities don’t want to take a chance.”

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