BRIAN WILLIAMS, anchor:
OK. Anybody who flies knows the drill. Turn off all
electronic devices
during takeoff and landing. But how many times have you cheated, really, secretly tapped out a text or an email when you think
the coast is clear
? And how many times have you paused to ask yourself, 'What harm does it really do?' Well, we've wondered about that ourselves, so we asked
Tom Costello
, who covers aviation for us, to look into it.
TOM COSTELLO reporting:
Travel on any airline, any destination, the message is the same.
Unidentified Woman #1:
There are certain
electronic devices
though that can interfere with the aircraft's navigational system and may not be used on board at any time.
COSTELLO:
So can
mobile devices
really interfere with an aircraft's radios or sensitive electronics?
Unidentified Man:
I don't think an
iPhone
can bring down an airplane.
COSTELLO:
The answer is maybe. At a
Boeing
test center in
Seattle
, engineers laid out a variety of
mobile devices
for us, then scanned for
interference
. Within seconds, noise from the devices showed up in red.
Mr. BRUCE DONHAM (Boeing Technical Engineer):
You see a lot more
interference
.
COSTELLO:
That
interference
is coming from the video screens and internal computer chips, not cell transmitters. Turning on a
cell phone
creates bigger headaches.
Mr. DONHAM:
If that signal couples onto wiring, it may affect an aircraft's system.
Mr. DAVE CARSON:
We worked on this issue for about five years.
COSTELLO:
Boeing
's
Dave Carson
chaired an investigative committee that included airlines,
aircraft manufacturers
and the government, looking at electronic
interference
. Is there any evidence that electronics have ever contributed to a crash or even a serious incident?
Mr. CARSON:
There is no conclusive evidence. There's -- there are stories that when followed through we have been unable to prove.
COSTELLO:
Investigators in
New Zealand
suspect but never proved that a pilot's
cell phone
call home may have caused his plane to crash in
2003
, killing eight. Other pilots have reported navigational equipment problems until passengers turned off their devices. It's not just the electronics on the flight deck that are a concern. A modern aircraft has antennas and wiring above, below and throughout that could be vulnerable. While today's aircraft are tested and certified to withstand some electronic
interference
, safety demands little to no
interference
during takeoff and landing.
Unidentified Woman #2:
All cellular phones need to be in the off position.
COSTELLO:
The potential for
interference
at just the wrong moment. Tom Costello, NBC News, Seattle.
