On a BMI flight from London Heathrow to Berlin Tegal at the start of Feb 2012 passengers were told cellphones were no longer allowed on at all during the flight(regardless of flight mode) due to new CAA regulations. The crew were walking up and down checking regularly and telling people to turn their cellphones off.
Has anyone else encountered this or have any further information as to why the sudden change?
I call BS.
From Civil Aviation Authority website:
Portable Electronic Devices
The use of portable electronic devices for sending and receiving data and voice calls is not permitted on board aircraft after they have closed their doors.
It may be possible to use a portable electronic device that has a transmitting facility in-flight, provided the transmitting facility is de-activated. This is often referred to as ‘flight safe mode’ or ‘airplane mode’.
Some airlines allow customers to use portable electronic devices for transmitting data and calls if the aircraft is fitted with a system that supports this, but there may charge for this facility.
If you are flying with a low-cost airline or one that provides additional paid-for "services" on board (meals, drinks, sky shops, entertainment) then this airline "policy" makes economics sense (to them), but you can point out that since the Aviation Authority explicitly allows usage of devices in non-transmitting mode, they might as well STFU and leave you alone.
If you are an EU citizen, I'm sure your local European Consumer Center would like to hear from you. You might also want to check the Is it Fair? initiative, where there are some helpful information on how to signal about unfair business practices.
On a series of flights in the UK this week with BA, the rules were still the standard:
No electronic devices during taxi, take-off or landing Electronic devices with a flight safe mode acceptable during the flight
I can't understand why they would change that rule - from a technical risk standpoint it is already accepted that mobile phones remaining on during flight isn't a security risk, but actually just causes the phone network some issues.
On a flight from Bergamo to Istanbul, on 6th Feb 2012 same rules were applied. They explicitly told that flight mode is not allowed. The airline was Pegasus Airlines.
I find this hard to believe. Some european airlines (e.g. Ryanair) have a little phone base station on the plane, so you can roam onto their network and make phone calls while in flight. Since they allow you to make phone calls during some of the time on some flights, it can't be the case that they are banned.
