I work as crew, the amount of passengers I see attempting to type emails and send text messages is unbelievable, I'd say 90% of people using phones use them to attempt to make phone calls, send messages etc.

Mobiles can normally be used until the aircraft doors are closed when they should be switched off.

luci

if theres no sim in the phone can it still be used as an mp3 player? my current phone has about 15 hours worth of music on it and i was thinking of listening to it on my flight to florida in october. the player still works without my sim in so could i use it that way as i have heard them saying even phones with flight safe mode must be switched off, with no sim in my phone there is no way of me transmitting any signal. so can i use it?

Let me try and clear up some of the confusion, mobile phone's unless in flight mode will continue to "talk" to cell sites when not being used, even without sim cards.
This can interfere with the navigation systems on the aircraft, but because at altitude your phone can "see" lot's of cell sites it can cause the networks problems as well.
So it's much better all round to just turn it off, anyone can live without it for just a few hours

I wonder why flight mode isn't ok with some airlines ? My phone has fight mode (requires turning it off and when it comes back on its purely an MP3 player, you can't do anything else with it, can't access any other menu, not even the pictures etc, its just an Mp3 player) so how would this be a problem when you could take an mp3 player on or even have a laptop on board playing dvds (which I'll put money on most people don't even know how to turn wi-fi and bluetooth off and so don't)

to me, this is a fairly simple matter.
most airlines ask for mobile phones to be switched off during the flight. the cabin crew cannot be expected to know how every mobile phone works, and do not have the time to check that each individual phone is or is not in an acceptable mode before take off. the low cost airlines have a very limited turn round time and will not get involved in trying to do this. so they just insist on all phones being switched off.
now, on an airline a captains word is law, and the cabin crew make the announcements and act on his/her command. you are being asked by the captain to switch off your phone. this is a lawful command, regardless of whether your phone has flight mode or whether you think the evidence that mobile phones affect aircraft is wrong.
if you disobey a captains order you can be thrown off the flight. if the cabin crew think that you are too argumentative, and may compromise the safety of the flight they can ask the captain to off-load you.
so, which option is better, take a mp3 player that the crew have no problems with you using (except during take off and landing), or take a phone that has the capacity to play music.
to me it is a no-brainer.

Jimd-f - yes I can see that and have no problems with it but my point (beside the fact that is perfectly safe in flight mode on my phone) is why make people switch mobiles off, won't even let them use them in flight mode yet every other person has a laptop on the go which can have mobile comms, bluetooth, infrared and wireless signals blasting out ! - It is possible to turn them off but how many people will -
A know it needs doing
B know how to do it
C remember to do it (for all of the systems)

is this more a case of long term conditioning that mobiles are bad but no one has considered all the same systems that exist in laptops and even handheld games (playstation type games that can bluetooth together or wirelessly connect to the internet, do you think little johnie or his mum and dad will think to disable the comms ?)

Steve

AskCy wrote:

laptop on the go which can have mobile comms, bluetooth, infrared and wireless signals blasting out

All of which must be dissabled inflight unless the aircraft is equiped with the required systems. There is nothing that says a problem will occur every time a device is used onboard an aircraft. However many of these are a lot less powerful than mobile signals and use different wavelengths and frequencies. There's enough evidence that there is a risk and there are several examples. With modern fly by wire aircraft, you're never too far from a control system signal.

All this has been discussed previously on the topic I linked to above. Some airlines do allow mobiles to be used in flight safe mode, some don't. It depends on the airlines policy. Many airlines make it simple though; no mobiles to be used inflight on the basis that it only needs one to be in the incorrect mode to potentially cause a problem and as mentioned above, you can't expect cabin crew to check every phone to make sure they're in the correct mode. They have enough to do as it is. I use my phono as an mp3 / multimedia player when on holiday. However the dissadvantage is if that's the only one you have, you don't have use of it on the flight, flight safe mode or not. If you want to listen to your own music on the flight, a basic mp3 is ideal.

Darren

Darren again the same point some laptops have mobile comms built in, cabin crew can't be expected to know all the makes and spend time checking to make sure comms have been disabled etc, yet laptops are used where mobiles aren't !

Steve