Mobile phone ringing all night !

[tezzer]

Grrr !! I have just come in to AMS from KUL, and as we all settled down to sleep (23.10 departure) a phone started ringing somewhere in the cabin. At first I thougt it was my imagination, but no, it wasn't. As the cabin was in darkness, I got up to answer the call of nature, and advised the cabin crew. Tobe fair, the guy came and stood in the cabin, and sue enough next time it rang, he wandered around in the dark, trying to pinpoint the noise, but failed. He gave me some new earplugs (thanks !) and gave up his search, but always in the back of my conciousness was this ring bloody ring.
So, what SHOULD he have done ? Put the cabin lights on and carried out a proper search ? Woke everyone up and asked them to ceck their phones, as it was somewhere around row 3, port side, i.e. directly under the flight deck, with all that sensitive instrumentation.

As it was, I slept like a log, once I'd got the earplugs in, and didn't wake up til we were over Poland.

[GwynM]

somewhere around row 3, port side

rules about mobile pholes only apply to mortals, not those sitting (lying) in the posh seats

[Ray D'Avecta]

That is bizzare :eek:

The ringing phone could not have been an incoming call, as there would be no mobile phone signal at cruise altitude, and even if there was, whoever was calling would eventually give up.

More likely to have been an "alarm" that had been set, but I would have thought that after 3 or so automatic 'snooze' resets, the phone itself would have given up.

Most plausible explanation, however..............a kids toy phone! :}

[Snoopy]

If it was my wife's phone it would have been the "battery low" alert! :eek:

[smala01]

I have a smart phone which has my calendar synchronised.

Whilst the phone is in “flight mode” I often forget to silence the PDA part - the calendar will alert me to an appointment (sounds like an incoming text message) mid flight. Rather embarrassing - considering the looks of fellow passengers. I’ve not been told off yet!

I now make an effort to switch the damn thing completely off.

Smala01

[spannersatcx]

i.e. directly under the flight deck

Must of been the flt crew then!:)

[VAFFPAX]

God I have had such incidents before too. I have a Nokia Communicator and it is ultimately two devices in one. If you switch the phone off, the communicator part is still on. So when my daily alarms go off... it's 'oh bugger, that's my communicator going off'.

Most embarrassing.

S.

[BOAC]

as there would be no mobile phone signal at cruise altitude, - oh yes - there can be!

[Ray D'Avecta]

oh yes - there can be!

yeah, I suppose.......at the cruising altitude of a Cessna 152!!! :} :ugh:

[deltayankee]

as there would be no mobile phone signal at cruise altitude,


Not sure this is true. In big cities there are basestations peppered all over the place but in rural areas they are often far apart, so they need to have a long range. According to The Wikipedia "The longest distance the GSM specification supports in practical use is 35 kilometres (22 mi)." Vertical distance will be less because of the way the antennas are designed, but it could still be close to cruise altitude.

[scr1]

they can be used

a couple of years ago are ground to air was u/s

a based capt knew this and had to contact us

so called while still 80 miles out

on his phone

[Ray D'Avecta]

Not sure this is true. In big cities there are basestations peppered all over the place but in rural areas they are often far apart, so they need to have a long range. According to The Wikipedia "The longest distance the GSM specification supports in practical use is 35 kilometres (22 mi)." Vertical distance will be less because of the way the antennas are designed, but it could still be close to cruise altitude.


.......and from the same Wikipedia, (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobile_phones_on_aircraft)

The maximum speed of travel in a mobile phone system is limited by several factors: frequency changes, rate of change of timing offset, etc. The speed of an airplane often exceeds these (typically phones are designed for use in a fast car) which means the phone will fail to register to the network and retry registration repeatedly