Bluetooth in the air

[davidjohnson6]

Some airlines allow the use of Bluetooth wherevere pax desire, some only while up in the air, and some don't allow it at all.
Phones and tablets until about a year or two ago would commonly come with a jack... so it was possible to use a wire to connect headphones to a device. Manufacturers seem to have now stopped that - so Bluetooth or some other radio-based communication mechanism is the only way to connect the 2 pieces of electronics. Equally it's now difficult to find headphones that come with a jack - many are Bluetooth-only

Are airlines saying "Bluetooth is forbidden always" just trying to tick a regulatory box knowing that this likely gets ignored and hoping it doesn't matter ? Apart from when things are going wrong, does the low range and power of a phone (in flight mode) broadcasting via Bluetooth really matter ? Are airlines and aviation regulators planning to find a way to square the reality of what pax want and expect (i.e. listen to music or watch a film during a flight) with what the rules say ?

I know there are always corner cases - e.g. flying through particularly difficult weather or something uncommon and problematic - but these scenarios are usually obvious and it's possible to get pax to change their behaviour on those occasions. I'd like to instead think about what should or will happen the rest of the time.

[S.o.S.]

Another good question dj6. Personally, I think it will fall into the bucket marked 'Who cares?" The distance of BTooth certainly makes a difference, as well as the fact that BTooth does not ramp up its signal strength to seek service, etc.

[SWBKCB]

I know there are always corner cases - e.g. flying through particularly difficult weather or something uncommon and problematic - but these scenarios are usually obvious and it's possible to get pax to change their behaviour on those occasions.

Like leaving their bags behind when evacuating?

[MechEngr]

All radio is infinite range transmission outside of a full containment (microwave oven interior for example). We still get data from Voyager which is a few watts and 161 AU (24 billion km; 15 billion mi) from Earth. The question is how sensitive is other electronic equipment to it.

It is typical the FCC says "the world is noisy, deal with it" while also limiting emissions from devices to reasonable levels (no megaWatt cell phones).

Airtags use Bluetooth and some airlines are sensitive to passengers finding out the airlines are lying to them about where their bags are, so they have tried to ban them. No doubt, if they can't get the airtags contained they can go after the phones that work with them.

The airlines may claim interference concerns, but if it makes the flight unsafe then they are advertising an attack/disruption vector and they should not be.

The only reasonable excuse is to stop morons from having one-sided conversations with cell phones and annoying surrounding passengers.

[redsnail]

Many of us wear blue tooth enabled watches and there's nothing out there tell us to turn them off yet. Analogue mobile phones used to be annoying as you could hear the zzt zzt zzt over our headsets. The newer mobiles don't seem to do it. :)

[PAXboy]

The only reasonable excuse is to stop morons from having one-sided conversations with cell phones and annoying surrounding passengers.

Indeed. Everyday there are people in public places, holding their phone at an angle and talking at it. How did this come about? :ugh:

[ZFT]

Startrek

[Asturias56]

"The only reasonable excuse is to stop morons from having one-sided conversations with cell phones and annoying surrounding passengers."

It used to irritate me but then I realised if they didn't talk to the phone they might start talking to me................ :bored:

If you take out a pencil and start making notes of their conversation it does tend to shut them up tho'