Reply #22: No, but it confirms again that cell phones work on airplanes.

[greyl]

Which also means that people should stop spewing that cell phones don't work on airplanes and that all of the calls made from the passengers to their loved ones on 9/11 aren't real.
I think that argument has been more than sufficiently invalidated.

Our research shows clearly that, in violation of FCC and FAA rules, calls are regularly made from commercial aircraft. Results from our analysis imply that calls from on board scheduled commercial aircraft in the eastern United States occur at a rate of one to four per flight. In addition, we saw other signals that suggest that at least one passenger neglects to turn off his or her cellphone on most flights.
Why are passengers ignoring the rules? In 2001, with the assistance of a travel agent, we conducted a small survey of frequent flyers. As it turns out, passengers are unaware of the reasons for current PED policies, and they doubt that there are any serious safety risks.
http://www.spectrum.ieee.org/mar06/3069/4