While it may be clear that the use of wireless phones is prohibited aboard commercial aircraft, many private pilots in a recent survey indicated they have made calls from their cellular phone while airborne, and some believe it is OK to do it.
Billig & Associates, an independent market-research company, surveyed pilots at the Colorado Air Show in June and the National Business Aviation Association conference on October. According to the report, commissioned by AirCell Inc., half of pilots interviewed at the Colorado show and 57 percent of pilots at the NBAA show indicated cellular calls had been placed from their aircraft during the prior year.
A majority (61 percent at the Colorado show and 77 percent at the NBAA show) understood that in-flight use of cellular phones is not permitted, said the report. Eighteen percent of respondents at the Colorado show said they believed use of cellular phones in aircraft is permitted, while 16 percent said they believed the practice is discouraged but not illegal.
“The bottom-line results are startling because a lot of pilots do know about the rule and broke it anyway, or they don’t know, or they say they don’t know about the rule,” said Steve Billig, owner of Billig & Associates. “Among pilots who were aware of the rule, a surprising amount of them allowed cellular phones to be used while in flight.”
The FCC’s Concerns
The Federal Communications Commission is responsible for the rule prohibiting the use of cellular phones aboard aircraft. According to the rules, “cellular telephones installed in or carried aboard airplanes, balloons or any other type of aircraft must not be operated while such aircraft are airborne (not touching the ground). When any aircraft leaves the ground, all cellular telephones on board that aircraft must be turned off.”
Much of the FCC’s concern about the issue involves the effect airborne cellular usage has on cellular networks.
The potential exists for several cell sites to pick up the same signal from a cellular phone call made from an airplane flying at a high rate of speed over many sites, said Norman Sandler, director of strategic issues at Motorola Inc. Multiply that effect by several phone calls being made from the air, and networks could potentially become overloaded, he said.
Sources in the aviation industry also indicate an attitude among some pilots that they can use their cellular phone for free while in flight because many of the carriers’ billing systems aren’t sophisticated enough yet to pick up and process a signal moving so quickly from site to site.
The FAA’s concerns
The Federal Aviation Administration has concerns of its own about the use of personal electronic devices (PEDs), including cellular phones, while airborne. Those concerns stem mostly from the potential for the devices to cause interference with communications systems and flight instruments, putting the crew and passengers in danger.
Airplanes use frequencies from 10 kHz up to more than 1 GHz for positioning in relation to ground-base transmitters, glide slope systems used during landings, distance-measuring equipment, collision avoidance, global positioning and weather radar systems.
While the FAA does not specifically ban the use of cellular phones while in flight, it does issue recommendations and guidelines that discourage the practice. According to an advisory circular distributed to pilots, “There are certain devices, which by their nature and design, transmit intentionally. These include cellular telephones, citizens’ band radios, remote control devices, etc. These devices are typically licensed as land mobile devices by the FCC,” said the advisory. “The FAA supports this airborne restriction for reasons of potential interference to critical aircraft systems.”
According to anecdotal evidence reported in an Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc. Spectrum magazine article, in many cases when flight instruments malfunctioned, the problem was corrected when an electronic device was turned off and re-created by turning the device back on.
“The culprit is electromagnetic emissions from the PEDs, which interfere with avionics systems, most commonly radio navigation and communications,” said the article. “Co-conspirators are the aluminum airframe, which can act as a shield, a resonant cavity or a phase array, and the sensitivities of the avionics. The radiation from the devices can couple to the avionics through the antennas, the wiring or directly into the receiver.”
Enforcement
Rules to protect the safety of flight crews and passengers as well as maintaining the integrity of cellular networks seem reasonable. But it is not clear which agency is responsible for enforcing those rules. The majority of passenger carriers follow the rules, but is there any way to compel private pilots to do the same?
The FCC has issued the guideline, and the FAA supports it, but neither agency has the means to ensure the rule isn’t broken. Cellular carriers have taken steps to educate customers. BellSouth Cellular Corp., for instance, outlines the rule in its new-customer brochures and training classes.
According to a section of the Billig report, however, carriers’ front-line customer service agents may not be educated about the rule. Out of 24 calls to customer service representatives at six major carriers, Billig found that 20 agents said in-flight use of cellular phones in private aircraft was allowed, three agents said it was not allowed and one agent didn’t know. The three agents that knew the rule then were asked if cellular phones can be used in an emergency, at low altitude or over rural areas. All three said no.
Those three agents also indicated that they didn’t know the likelihood of getting caught using a cellular phone in flight, and that they were not sure of the consequences.
During the “mystery shopper” survey, Billig presented himself as a businessman who wanted to know whether he could use his cellular phone aboard a corporate plane.
Air phones
The FCC has allowed some companies to provide air-to-ground communications, including GTE Airfone and AT&T Corp. GTE uses frequencies different from cellular to avoid interference with aircraft navigation systems, said the company. The system uses two separate narrow bandwidths between 849 MHz and 851 MHz for air-to-ground communications, and between 894 MHz and 896 MHz for receiving calls.
GTE said its antennas are mounted on the bellies of airplanes and its equipment and technicians are FAA certified.
Boulder, Colo.-based AirCell has experimental authority from the FCC to operate an air-ground communications system primarily aimed at providing real-time information to pilots and communications to corporate travelers on private planes. The company also said its antennas are mounted outside the plane to avoid any interference with navigational systems.
