Despite these reports, not a single air crash has been proven to be caused by the use of a cell phone onboard a plane.
John Nance, an ABC News consultant and veteran airline pilot, says there's little reason to worry about cell phones interfering with an airplane's navigational equipment. He says an airplane's electronic systems are "all heavily shielded. That means that stray signals cannot get into those systems."
So, we FIRST have to have a crash "proven" to be caused by a cell phone before we should ban their airborne use? I don't think so... Maybe it merely shows that the present policy has adequately protected us from such crashes!
Maybe John Nance's experience in MD-80s and/or 737s qualifies him to talk about those, but there have been several verified reports of EMI problems aboard other airplanes due to cell phone use. The WiFi problem reported by 214 above is new to me, but it adequately demonstrates how such EMI could CAUSE a crash due to erroneous RA triggers!