> Currently, regulations require passenger to turn off their cellphones or activate airplane mode before takeoff and during the entire flight. The practice is a security measure to avoid interference with the plane’s electric and telecommunications systems.

Airplane mode is now mainly for the cellular networks to not have a lot of phones in the plane have handoffs between cell towers all the time. It would be far too easy to do “terrorist attacks” if you could simply bring down a plane with a turned on phone.

> It has also been found that cell towers on the ground can become overwhelmed due to phones in the sky. With how quickly airplanes travel, cellular signals would have to be bounced off of cell towers at high speeds.

https://nci.edu/2022/06/06/everything-you-need-to-know-about...