Cell Phone-Using Passengers Risk Airplane Safety, Study SaysCell Phone-Using Passengers Risk Airplane Safety, Study Says

After studying the use of cell phones and other portable electronic devices on commercial aircraft, a team of Carnegie Mellon University researchers has concluded that passengers are regularly violating the ban on using the devices and are creating risk to airplane navigation.

"These devices can disrupt normal operation of key cockpit instruments, especially Global Positioning System (GPS) receivers, which are increasingly vital for safe landings," said Bill Strauss, one of the Carnegie Mellon investigators, in a statement this week.

The investigators had cooperation and support from the Federal Aviation Administration, the Transportation Security Agency, and three airlines in their study. The findings are at odds with the opinions of other investigators and with several airlines, which are allowing the use of laptops and Wi-Fi inflight.

The most glaring violations, according to the investigating team, involve passengers using cell phones in violation of existing FCC and FAA regulations.

"What we found was disturbing," the researchers wrote in an article in this month's IEEE Spectrum. "Passengers are using cellphones, on the average, at least once per flight, contrary to FCC and FAA regulations, and sometimes during the especially critical flight phases of takeoff and landing."

Strauss, who is an expert in aircraft electromagnetic compatibility at the Naval Air Warfare Center in Patuxent River, Md., and other members of the research team included Granger Morgan, head of the university's Department of Engineering and Public Policy, and researchers Jay Apt and Dan Stancil. They studied the issue for several months. They noted that there is no formal coordination between the FAA and the FCC and recommended that the two agencies work together on the issue.

The investigators said they measured radio frequency activity on 37 passenger flights in the Eastern U.S. from September through November 2003. They found that wireless devices in portable computers and other electronic devices in addition to cell phones constituted risk to airplanes' electronics.

The FCC has been studying the use of electronic consumer devices on commercial aircraft and is expected to issue a ruling on the subject later this year. According to a recent Congressional report, the FCC "hopes to issue a final ruling in 2006, stating that its ultimate objective is to allow consumers to use their own wireless devices during flight."

Several foreign airlines are using Boeing's Connexion Wi-Fi service during international flights, although the FCC has withheld that permission for U.S. flights to date. Phone calls to Boeing for comment were not immediately returned.