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In the Airline industry, there is no concensus how to deal with mobile phones and especially flight mode. This is partially because of the FAA not defining terms like "flight mode", on the other hand it is also the (lack of) resistence of specific (older) planes in a fleet to specific types of radio transmissions. Consequence is that airlines are not consistent across the board what you may and may not do on board with your phone.
Be aware that a flight crew has a final say in this. Although the rules are determined by airlines, the captain on a flight can even decide to do it totally different since he is ultimately responsible for safety on board. It might be that they do not understand the technology used, or that specific rules apply in specific flights due to local regulations. Not following these rules can result in you being arrested or even imprisoned for not complying with safety directions of the flight crew (please observe that this will have nothing to do with you actually having used a mobile phone inflight).
We are maintaining a list what we know is allowed on flights:
Airline | Bluetooth | Wireless LAN | CellPhone | Flight mode | Completely off | Last update |
| ATA | No | No | No | No | Allowed | 12 october 2007 |
| BMI | No | No | No | No | Allowed | 6 November 2008 |
| British Airways | Allowed | No | No | Allowed | Allowed | 9 april 2007 |
| KLM | No | No | No | No | Allowed | 12 april 2007 |
| Lufthansa | No | Allowed* | No | Allowed | Allowed | 13 october 2009 |
| Ryanair | Allowed | Allowed | Allowed | Allowed | Allowed | 20 february 2009 |
| Qantas | No | No | No | Allowed | Allowed | 12-November 2007 |
| SAS | No | No | No | Allowed | Allowed | 9 february 2009 |
| Sterling | No | No | No | No | Allowed | 3 april 2008 |
| Transavia | No | No | No | No | Allowed | 15 june 2007 |
* On selected flights, otherwise No.
Please be aware that sometimes a phone mistakingly might report it is in flight mode, but it still has its radios are turned on.
Be aware that it is not possible to turn off a Windows Mobile 5 device and older. Taking out the batteries will result in a Hard Reset
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