Does listening to music really have an effect on the airplane's communication devices?

No

See the Mythbusters episode. In short, yes, electronic devices can potentially impact airplane equipment. Can they impact them enough to actually cause problems? No, probably not. But better safe than sorry.

http://news.discovery.com/videos/why-tell-me-why-cell-phones-on-planes.html

basically they’re scared of losing a signal (not necessarily to the tower) on the plane. Everything electronic required a signal from one node to another and they don’t want to take the chance of one node being uncommunicative.

@MrItty I was gonna post a link to it, but I couldn’t find it, lol.

@Axemusica Here you go:

http://kwc.org/mythbusters/2006/04/episode_49_cellphones_on_plane.html

relevant portion:
“Next, Grant monitored the needle on the VOR navigation system while he simulated various cellphone signals. The GSM signal showed no needle deflection, even when amplified 1000x. A 800Mhz signal, however, showed major needle deflection, as did 850Mhz and 900Mhz signal. This showed that it was possible in theory to interfere with the navigational equipment, but their wiring wasn’t shielded in the same manner that an airplane would have been.”

Again, ridiculously unlikely, but theoretically possible. And that’s why it’s disallowed.

Summary from that MB episode:
“The final explanation is that, even though the airplanes appear to be well-shielded against cellphone interference, there are so many different electronics in a cockpit, as well as so many different cellphones constantly coming out, the FAA doesn’t want to do the necessary testing.”

There’s a difference between using a cell phone and using an iPod or an iPhone in airplane mode. If you’re just listening to music and are in airplane mode and not transmitting, then there is no evidence for interference. There is a bit of EMR coming off your device, but there is just as much coming off the little seatback screens, every device in the cockpit, and the guy next to you who is ignoring the rule.

So basically, even transmitting cell phones aren’t likely to cause problems, but listening to music on an iPhone almost certainly will not cause any problem whatsoever.

@MrItty Loved that show!!

Listening to music aboard an aircraft, does effect the airplane in any way. if this were the case, airlines would not provide you with onboard music to listen to. the problem is radio transmissions and this includes cellphones, especially satelitte cellphones. this is why they are forbidden.

The music during take-off thing is less to do about causing any interference, and more to do with making sure you can be aware of your environment during take-off and landing in case of an emergency (so you can listen for important announcements). For the same reason you have to move your bags under the seat and raise your tray and seat during take-off/landing so that if people need to get out, there are fewer obstructions. That said, how immersed in your music can you be to not notice the plain crashing or on fire, with people screaming and panicking?

I don’t get that explanation. The airways during take off and landing is full of radio waves even if the cells are turned off. The planes radio bandwidth is also different than that of cell phones. The EM field of these devices are insignificant. Those explanations don’t seem very fact based.

@shilolo So why don’t they tell people not to go to sleep, not to start reading, etc. It’s not about paying attention, it’s just about inertia.

@shilolo Hit the nail on the head! Music is all about paying attention to the flight attendants. Cellphones, like on the MB show can cause interference. I have been flying and heard the cellphone come through my headset while on approach to landing and gotten on the intercom and said “whoever just turned on an AT&T or Nextel/Sprint cellphone, please turn it off.” AT&T and any walkie talkie type cellphones put out a signal that we can hear up front. (Sometimes)

@Snarp There are things they can control (turn off all electronic devices) and things they cannot (don’t go to sleep). Reading at least your ears and eyes are open, so that is moot. For the same reason you have to have your window shades open so that you or someone else can look outside in an emergency. Here is a comment about this issue from a pilot (scroll down a bit to the part about music players). He says:

“Remember that some devices, like Walkman or Discman players, are prohibited during takeoff and landing not necessarily because of interference, but so passengers are able to hear P.A. announcements and instructions in the event of trouble. In this spirit, maybe airlines should demand the removal of earplugs and wake up all the sleeping passengers, but it seems they’ve drawn the line at listening to music.”

Also, any loose and relatively heavy object could become a fast moving projectile in the event of turbulence or a crash. So, even if you survive the crash, someone’s iPod flying into your head might do some serious damage.

@shilolo Actually, they can’t control electronic devices either. Somewhere on an airplane someone is breaking the rule right now. I guarantee it. The flight attendant at the front of the plane doing her spiel or sitting in the jump seat has no idea that the guy in 14d is listening to his iPod, and the lady in 14c is not going to rat him out. You can ask people not to sleep and to remove ear plugs, and it will be just as effective as asking them to stop listening to their iPods, or asking them to take out the safety flier and follow along (yeah, like anyone older than 12 is doing that). Meanwhile babies are crying, some are being breastfed, toddlers are being wrestled with to keep them in their safety belts, and the guy in 12a is saying the rosary out loud.

The rule was made for fear of interference. It stays in place due to inertia. And “paying attention” is just an excuse so that the honest and hard working flight attendants don’t feel entirely stupid trying to defend an outdated policy.

Either that or the industry is entirely out of touch with reality.

@Snarp I have to disagree. I had a flight attendant tell me that a passenger wouldn’t turn off his cellphone after the door was closed. He was quickly removed from the plane. I can’t say for sure what happened later, but he didn’t go with me. Music is always allowed inflight above 10K feet.

@Snarp I don’t quite get your point. People break rules all the time, but that doesn’t mean the rules don’t exist. The speed limit is 55, do you drive 70? Probably.

Airlines have to explain their policies, and you can choose whether to follow them, but they also have the right to intervene if you don’t. Indeed, I have been on many flights where the flight attendants walk through the aisles just before take-off making a final sweep. It isn’t all that difficult to spot the people with ear plugs in, and the flight attendants frequently will nudge people to follow the rules.

In any event, the rule may seem “stupid” to you, and it may very well be, but how onerous is it to not listen to music for 10 minutes? How entitled can one be?

@missingbite I haven’t said word one about cell phones, and that’s a major problem. The question is about an iPod, which has no cellular transmitter. People often confuse the no cell phone rule with the no personal electronics rule, and I think it’s important to be clear.

Of course he could be removed from the plane. The rules actually state that you have to do anything the flight attendant tells you or you can be removed from the plane. That doesn’t mean that as soon as the flight attendant was seated the guy in 14d didn’t turn on his iPod.

@shilolo My point is that your point is flawed. They have just as much power to stop people from sleeping or wearing earplugs as from listening to an iPod. Obviously people will put up with just about any crap in order to fly, as evidenced by the absurd per bag checked charges, the ridiculous and arbitrary TSA rules regarding liquids, pocket knives, and shoes, and the existing electronics rules.

The official rules allow breastfeeding, but flight attendants have told women to stop, and those women have no choice but to do so, if they argue they will be removed from the plane. So there’s really nothing that can’t be prohibited or enforced on an airplane.

But my large point is the last sentence, which I don’t think has been refuted.

And for the record, I don’t own an iPod, and I actually do listen to the safety announcement. In spite of the fact that it is so unimportant to the airline itself that it is now pre-recorded and the flight attendants don’t even do the demo, they just point at the safety card.

If the two or three people in the cockpit are doing it, yes.

@Snarp My wife and I have been on many flights, and she has nursed on nearly all of the recent ones in the past 3 years (at least 10, if not more). No one has ever told her to stop nursing, nor have I ever seen a flight attendant stop another woman from nursing (there would be an uproar). That is highly unlikely.

As far as the rules, they are not mine. For consistency, they probably should wake people up that are sleeping, but for historical reasons probably have decided not to cross that line. As for the portable devices, I can see the airlines’ predicament. The proliferation of devices in the past 10 years has been exponential, and there really is no way to tell which device does what. I don’t think they want their employees adjudicating which are transmitters or simply players and so on during the hectic period before take-off.

By the way, you have to separate the TSA rules (water, shoes, knives, etc.) with the FAA rules (players). Two different things.

@shilolo The breastfeeding thing has happened. It’s been a while, and I have no idea where I read it, but it was a credible new source. Airlines have gotten better at consistency on this, but it is not the only place where the word of the flight attendant must be obeyed, even if you just read the policy and you know they are wrong. I’ve had this issue with a car seat used on an airplane and getting inconsistent information from flight attendants and from the airplane. But we’re getting far afield here.

Of course FAA and TSA and airlines are all different things, but the willingness of passengers to accept arbitrary rules doesn’t change from one to the other. All make arbitrary rules that in ordinary situations Americans would not put up with, but because it’s an airplane flight we accept them. And the total experience of an airline customer consists of putting up with the rules of all three entities and all three contribute to overall satisfaction with the flying experience.

I never intended to get so argumentative about this. Sheesh, sometimes I just feel so right I can’t help myself.

We have our own plane and we never turn off the cell phones or anything when we take off or land. There is no FAA reg that requires us to do it. It’s an airline thing, probably so you will pay attention to the flight attendants when they show you how to fasten your seat belt.

No I was always under the impression it was supposedly a safety issue. If something is to go wrong during the flight it is most likely to happen during take off or landing and having passengers hands and ears free to pay attention seems like a good idea. I don’t know where I heard this and I don’t have stats to back it up but it sounds reasonable enough to me.