What's holding up use of mobiles in flight

New Delhi: If more and more airlines globally are allowing passengers to make use of their mobile phones during flights, why is India an exception?
Domestic airlines take refuge in the November 2000 Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) notification for not allowing passengers to use mobile phones during flights.
The airline safety watchdog had said that safety information internationally exchanged reveals specific cases where use of mobile telephones by passengers inside the aircraft cabin had caused erratic performance of airborne equipment leading to serious safety hazards during flight.
But industry analysts and pilots say that they cannot remember a single incident when such an incident has occurred.
Mobile operators say that the ‘no-phone rule' has got nothing to do with cellular network technology. “The perceived fear is that the radio signals emitted by the handsets will interfere with the radio signals used by the aircraft and thus cause problems in communication between the Air Traffic Controller and the pilots. The probability of this is very low as the frequencies used by the plane and cell phones are very different. However, for abundant caution, cell phones are switched off,” said Mr Rajan Mathews, Director-General, Cellular Operators Association of India.
Mr Mathews said that there was also no fear of telecom networks not being able to handle such traffic due to the high speed of the airplane.
“The speed at which the cell user is travelling does not matter, unless they are travelling at the speed of sound,” he said. Telecom operators said that they are willing to offer services on board if flight regulations permit.
And since the time the DGCA issued the notification a number of airlines to the east and west of India have allowed or are planning to allow use of mobile phones during flight.
03/12/11 Ashwin Phadnis/Thomas K Thomas/Business Line

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Categories: Indian Aviation- In General Dec 2011