Cell phones in airliners
This may be an old topic but here goes...
Some years ago as a passenger into Johannesburg in an SAA Airbus (before the Boeings..before the Airbi) we were doing the taxi from Boksburg to Kempton Park & the passengers were repeatedly firing up their phones despite requests not to. Eventually the Captain came on the intercom & warned that the use of the phones could interfere with the planes braking system & cause us to come to a dead halt with locked wheels.
Could he have been spinning a story there? If it were really so then NO cell phones should be allowed in the cabin at all because of the potential for a disaster on take off?
I assume the major risk is interference with comms signals - what about nav signals? What is the present state of knowlege on this subject?