Originally Posted by
tdracer
Anything built in the last 30 years has some level of HIRF protection (the requirements have evolved over time and are more defined and stringent on the newer stuff).
However, weird things still happen. There have been documented cases where the pilots experienced some flight deck anomalies and ask the FA to check who was using a PED and have them turn everything off - at which time everything returned to normal. What's really interesting is that they can never duplicate it later on - Boeing has gone as far as to purchase the actual PEDs from the passengers and test them and found nothing unusual.
I was able to generate spurious messages in our corp G-IV many years ago, admittedly over 30 years old and one of the earlier glass versions. These tests were not intended to validate (or not) RF interference, but to determine if voice encryption while airborne for the execs was at all feasible. At that time, the execs really only had laptops and early analog RF devices. Still, the chief pilot arranged a test and spent a couple of hours working with me because crews were already seeing odd messages appear - particularly disconcerting in ocean crossings and on approach (mentioned one incident descending into Rome in particular). SOP was to have the execs power everything off.
I brought two RF devices on board and could vary the strength of the RF signal with mods from Motorola. Of note, the higher the power output of the radio, the more frequent the faults occurred - but not always. Where I physically sat with the devices also made a difference - again but not always. There were some places in the aircraft where no faults appeared despite cranking the RF power to the max unless I shifted the oreientation of the device. There were other places where minimal power would start to generate messages regardless of orientation although less in number. If I repeated the same tests, I did not get the same results. Very un-scientific but enough that I shut my phone off without being told to do so on every flight after that.