People are only just learning why you must use airplane mode during flights – pilot reveals all

A pilot shared the importance of using airplane mode when you're on a flight.

While some may not think it's a big deal, the American aviation expert said it can make a huge difference to his shifts. He took to the Perch Point TikTok page to share his travel advice.

Airplane mode is required during flights primarily to ensure safety and to comply with regulations. Although modern aircraft are well shielded from electronic interference, there is still a potential risk that signals from personal electronic devices could interfere with the aircraft's navigation and communication systems.

When a phone is not in airplane mode, it actively seeks out cell towers to maintain connection. At cruising altitude, a phone would try to connect with multiple towers at once, which could potentially disrupt cellular networks on the ground.

This can be dangerous if ground staff or pilots are trying to share important information with one another. According to the TikTok pilot, people's phones can end up sounding like "wasps" or "mosquitos" when he's trying to talk to his colleagues through his headset.

He said: "When passengers don't activate airplane mode, their phones try to connect to radio towers. This can cause interference in the headsets we use to receive important instructions. There's a potential that those radio waves interfere with the radio waves of the headsets used by pilots."

Thankfully, people in the comments section seemed to take his advice on board. The clip garnered 96,500 likes and plenty of comments from frequent flyers.

One wrote: "Thank you for explaining this. I'll be better with turning on airplane mode now." Meanwhile, another said: "Thank you for this explanation! I’m a strict airplane mode follower but I never fully understood why it was important!"

A third remarked: "To be honest, thanks for this. I stopped taking airplane mode seriously years ago lol. Sorry I’ll do better now." And a fourth added: "Thank you for explaining this, it would be so helpful to just say this onboard so people understand why."