Ever heard of the Martinair 757 incident ?
On May 28, 1996, at 1421 eastern daylight time, a Boeing 767-31AER, PH-MCH, operated by Martinair Holland, as flight 631 received minor
damage during an unscheduled landing at Logan Airport, Boston.
The flight destined for Orlando, Florida, had departed Schiphol Airport, Amsterdam. Flight crew reported that they had received several false system advisories during the flight. The advisories would appear and then disappear
shortly thereafter, with no corrective action being taken.
There was no evidence that the actual airplane systems were being affected.
These advisories started shortly after the airplane had reached cruise altitude, and continued at an intermittent rate throughout the flight. In addition there were multiple uncommanded auto pilot disconnects.
The transponder code window would suddenly display all zeros, and there were changes to the zero fuel weight information displayed on the EFIS. At one time, the airplane flew for about one hour with no problems noted. At 1355, when the 757 was about 20 nm miles north of the Kennebunk VOR, Maine, the crew declared an emergency due to loss of EFIS cockpit displays and the inertial navigation units.
They requested to land at Boston. The flight crew extended slats, and received a split slat indication. After checking that the available runway length was adequate, for their configuration and weight, they decided not to
extend flaps.
The spoilers were armed; however, after touchdown, the flight crew had to manually extend the spoilers and was unable to engage the reverse thrust.
Let's not forget the Egyptair 767 either, which went into a wild roller coaster dive.
Some years ago loading baggage for Air New Zealand, I remember on duty in the baggage hall how cell phones would keep ringing in baggage ready for loading on flights.
There was the CFIT crash of a Dash 8-100 belonging to Ansett NZ in June 1995. The captain Gary Sotheran claimed that whilst struggling with hung up main gear on an IFR approach the radar altimeter suddenly flipped 1,000 feet. Nobody ever believed him.
Sotheran was put on criminal trial and the day after that trial was abandoned news agencies disclosed that NZ Police had concealed evidence of a cell phone call being made by a passenger during the approach.
Police didn't seem to think it was their duty to share with the aviation world that cell phones endangered the flight because they were so hell bent on their prosecution.