Mobile Myths?
I'm kind of new at this professional aviation lark, so forgive me if this is a repeat question but I'm bugged enough about it to ask anyway!
I know the official story about mobile phones on aircraft "Please turn it off or it may affect the aircraft systems etc" but what is the REAL reason for authorities wanting people to switch their mobiles off? Okay the bandied answer is that the mobile signal may affect the increasingly sensitive aircraft systems, but I have heard a more plausible explanation in the case of a fast moving aircraft (passenger and mobile included) the mobile phone signal attempting to relay to the nearest comm relay satellite gets confused with the speed and attempts to relay to more than one sat - thus seriously clogging up the airways. With several satellites being clogged up with a fast moving mobile relay, some serious money on ground by the phone operators are lost - hence the request on so called safety grounds to switch the irritating little beast off. I haven't progressed to a fly-by-wire aircraft so in the primitive ones I do fly, mobile phones have absolutely NO affect on any of my not-so-sensitive instruments/systems other than to be a mild distraction to an eavesdropping pilot.
I'd be very interested if anyone out there can come up with a convincing, simple yet technical reason for the "switch off".
Just a further thought to ponder, if a mobile signal may affect an aircraft's systems, what about all the many heartbreaking mobile phone calls that were made from the four airliners on 9/11?? There were distinctly other reasons why these four aircraft headed earthwards and it doesn't seem to have been related to all the phone calls on board??