When flight attendants remind you to switch to airplane mode on your phone, you may want to listen.
In a viral video garnering nearly 900,000 views on TikTok, an airline pilot and U.S. Army veteran who posts under the username @perchpoint discloses the real reason that passengers need to activate the setting.
He revealed why toggling to airplane mode before an aircraft takes off “is not a conspiracy.”
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“If you forget to put your phone in airplane mode, no, it’s not the end of the world [and] the plane will not fall out of the sky, and it won’t even mess with the systems on board,” he said in the video.
“However, it does have the potential to mess with the headsets,” he said.
A pilot has gone viral on TikTok for sharing the real reason flight passengers need to activate airplane mode on their phones when flying. (iStock)
He went on to say that a flight with 70 to 150 passengers or more on board can still be affected — even if three or four people forget to turn on airplane mode.
If you do not activate this function, there’s a chance that phones with active signals could connect to a radio tower if an incoming call attempts to come through, sending out radio waves, he added.
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“There’s a potential that those radio waves can interfere with the radio waves of the headset that the pilots are using.”
The active phones can disturb the frequency and limit the pilot’s ability to communicate with necessary parties.
An airline pilot has gone viral on social media for sharing the important reason you need to activate airplane mode on your mobile phone before a flight takes off. (@perchpoint/TMX; iStock)
In the video, the pilot shared a real-life experience when phones that were not toggled to airplane mode interfered.
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“Last night in San Francisco, we had pushed off the gate, we were talking to the rampers, we had disconnected from the tug, started the engines and then once we got the plane turned around, we started heading toward the taxiways,” he said.
The pilot (not pictured), who goes by @perchpoint on TikTok, said a phone can interfere with the radio waves of the headset that the pilots are using. (iStock)
As soon as he reached out to gain clearance on the aircraft route and made his way to the runway, he started hearing a buzzing sound through his headset.
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“I called up ground to get our clearance as to which direction we had to go and as soon as you start getting the directions, there’s like this really annoying buzz going through the headset and it kind of sounds like there’s a mosquito in my ear,” the pilot said in the video.
The pilot added that the buzzing sound can make it difficult for pilots to copy instructions.
If you do not activate airplane mode on your mobile phone and your device tries to receive a call, it can disturb the pilots’ signal and create a buzzing sound in their headsets. (iStock)
Many users on social media responded to the pilot’s PSA, saying they never knew the importance of activating airplane mode when flying.
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“I don’t get why people don’t turn it on airplane mode … I don’t want to pose ANY risk to anyone’s life no matter how big or small, esp in MID-AIR,” one TikTok user commented.
“You should say this ON the flight, to the passengers,” another user wrote.
Next time a flight attendant reminds you to turn your cellphone to airplane mode, make sure you activate the function — or your phone might get in the way of the pilot’s communication flow. (iStock)
Other users confirmed the pilot’s point and addressed how not toggling to airplane mode could also impact people in other positions who use headsets at work.
“I worked in theater and our hardwired com sets would make a skipping thud whenever we were getting a text or call in the same room. I figured that’s what you guys heard, so always turn on airplane mode,” one user commented.
“I had a radio talk show and I always told my guests to put their phone on airplane mode. If they received a call it created a loud buzz on the broadcast,” another wrote.
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The Federal Aviation Association (FAA) has a ban on the active use of mobile phones when flying.
“The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and FAA ban cell phones for airborne use because [the phones’] signals could interfere with critical aircraft instruments,” the FAA website says.
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“Devices must be used in airplane mode or with the cellular connection disabled.”
Fox News Digital reached out to the pilot, @perchpoint, for comment.
Sydney Borchers is a lifestyle production assistant with Fox News Digital.
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