CMU Claims Cellphones Can Crash Planes

The propellor-heads at Carnegie Mellon are sniffing around for more tax dollars, and this time, it is to create a device that can detect cellular telephone usage aboard aircraft flights. In a questionable study, they claim that cellular phone usage on flights could cause “severe accidents,” and it just so happens that CMU has just the device that can prevent such accidents.

From CNET here:

Severe accidents could be the consequence of airline passengers defying the cell phone ban and making calls while flying, a new study has shown.

Despite the U.S. ban on cellular calls on airplanes, air travelers have a hard time keeping their hands off their mobiles and often make calls during critical stages of the flight such as final approach, according to a research team from Carnegie Mellon University.

As part of the study, released Monday, the research team filled their hand luggage with a broadband antenna and spectrum analyzer and boarded random airplanes crossing the Northeast United States. Picking up signals from cell phone calls onboard, they found that an average of one to four calls are made on every U.S. commercial flight.

“These devices can disrupt normal operation of key cockpit instruments, especially Global Positioning System receivers, which are increasingly vital for safe landings,” Bill Strauss, an expert in aircraft electromagnetic compatibility at the Naval Air Warfare Center in Patuxent River, Md., and one of the researchers who conducted the study, said in a statement.

Strauss said risks are caused by radio emissions from cellular calls that are higher than previously believed.

The tests were aimed primarily at tracking emissions from cell phones, but they showed that other electronic equipment used on planes, such as laptops and game devices, also send out potentially harmful signals.

The report adds to the debate that was generated last June after the Federal Communications Commission proposed lifting its 1991 cell phone ban, letting passengers use their phones and other electronic devices while flying.

The ban was originally put in place to prohibit calls aloft from interfering with cell phone conversations on the ground and planes’ radio communications, a risk that the FCC claimed might be outdated thanks to technical developments.

But lifting the ban is a bad idea, according to the Carnegie Mellon researchers. They recommended instead designing special tools for flight crews to track the use of electronic devices during critical stages of the flight.

This whole article is full of crap. The entire premise of the article is that cellular calls on planes are dangerous, and could lead to severe accidents. Yet, the study also concludes that up to four cellphone calls are placed on each and every flight in the USA. Given the number of planes in the air, multiplied by the number of calls on cellphones, shouldnt the odds that a severe accident might happen due to cellular phone usage occur by now? What could explain the absense of the severe accident? What could explain the absense of reports of even a near-miss of an accident due to cellular usage?

Try this for an explanation: Cellphones do not pose a threat to avionic equipment, nor to the safety of passengers on a flight. By the study’s own admission, people ignore the ban, so where are the accidents?

And the research team were using active radio receivers and antennas in flight? Who were the TSA employees that allowed this gizmo through the xray machine?

And as far as the expert. Bill Strauss, quoted from the Naval Air Warfare Center? Yeah, it is HIS study for his PhD at CMU. The article neglects to point this out, so it makes Bill’s opinions on the study a tad biased, I would say. He was also given a 50,000 dollar grant to do this hack of a study too, according to papers found online from CMU here.

Granger Morgan, professor and head of the Department of Engineering and Public Policy (EPP), and Bill Strauss, Ph.D. candidate, EPP, have been awarded a $50,000 grant by the Federal Aviation Administration to characterize the in-flight radio frequency spectrum produced by passenger electronics on commercial aircraft.

I remember what cellphones looked like 15 years ago in 1991, when the original cellphone ban was put in place- they were large and boxy. And the radio signal was much stronger back then and may have interfered with some avionic equipment.

But that is not the case today. Besides, avionics have adapted shielded electronics to prevent radio interference for critical systems. Otherwise, Mohammed Atta would have used a cellphone to bring down airliners on 9-11 on a massive scale if cellular phones were still such a threat.

In Bill Strauss’ world, airline travel isnt stressful and irritating enough. Now he wants flight attendants pulling out divining rods that Bill Strauss created, several times per flight, to track down gameboys, cellphones and laptops being used.

And he wants to frighten the FAA into believing that cellphones are a threat and he wants taxpayers to foot the bill for his hokey inventions.