In a video on his TikTok account, a US airline pilot explained why passengers are asked to put all electronic devices in offline mode on every flight: “No conspiracy, but no disaster scenario either.”
TIKTOK | On the left a screen from the video of the pilot @perchpoint
Everyone we asked ourselves at least once when, as soon as we get on a plane, in those few minutes before take-off, the flight attendant’s voice from the loudspeaker asks us to put our smartphones and all other offline electronic devices or precisely in “airplane mode”.
It’s probably also because it asks a question left unanswered for millions of passengers who a video posted from a US airline pilot on his TikTok account has become viral in a few days. His name on social media is PerchPoint and in his videos he talks about his life as a pilot, as well as explains some curiosities about the world of aviation.
The pilot’s explanation
In about ten days the video, published at the beginning of December 2024, was in fact seen more than a million times (the account has fewer than 14,000 followers) and received almost 2,000 messages.
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“No conspiracy”, the pilot clarifies straight away, it’s a safety issue. And this was quite obvious, “but not because – he explains – keeping phones online will crash planes” or could “mess up on-board systems”. The reason is another.
What are the possible consequences
Considering that on average on an airliner there are “70, 80, 150 people on board – explains the pilot – even if three or four people’s cell phones try to establish a connection with a nearby radio towerthe radio waves they send could interfere with those sent to the earphones that pilots use to communicate”. In fact, every electronic device emits signals, while airplane mode interrupts any transmission.
This – he adds – could create gods annoying noiseshow a kind of buzzin the pilots’ earphones. These could be a problem, given that through those earphones pilots receive important information about the flight: “It’s definitely not the end of the world, but it’s very annoying when you’re trying to hear instructions from the control tower and you think you hear an insect buzzing in your ears.”
