Why do airlines advise passengers to turn off all mobile phones and all electronic appliances prior to aircraft taking off and landing, and sometimes even while it is at a cruising altitude? This is one question that almost any curious first time flyer on an aircraft or even regular flyers would like to get an answer to.

Sometimes you are still fiddling with the phone trying to make the last call or send perhaps a last Small Messaging System (SMS) to a close friend or family members.It could be to alert that you are about to depart and to get the other person at the other end informed so that they can pick you up once you arrive.

It could even be, particularly for those with a phobia to fly, a call for a prayer of supplication for a safe flight. Then from nowhere, comes the warning; it’s a voice from the aircraft public address systems. “Please turn off your phones and any other electronic device”.

For years, frequent flyers have complained about the inability to use their electronic devices on planes. Several people have questioned why they can’t make phone call from their cell phone during a flight.

This reason has its basis in both practical applications of science and in the law. Cell phones and wireless devices such as laptops emit active transmissions on the electromagnetic spectrum, also found in devices that include phones, radios and Wi-Fi networks.

The Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) has the regulatory power over the use of electronic devices on airplanes and it has banned the use of electronic devices on planes for fear that the electromagnetic interference associated with their use could affect the delicately calibrated and critically important instruments used to help the pilot fly the plane.

Anyone who has ever set a mobile phone near a radio or television speaker and heard the effects, which alters the sounds from the speaker will readily appreciate and understand the reason for this concern. Imagine what that sort of interference multiplied by the dozens or hundreds of passengers on a particular aircraft – all using electronic devices at the same time could amount to. It would be a real catastrophe. It could compromise the aircraft safety.

American aircraft manufacturer, Boeing also investigated several cases in the 1990s where aircraft crews reported that laptop computers or gaming devices caused autopilot disconnects, un-commanded airplane rolls or instrument display malfunctions.

Recently, Nigeria joined the United States of America, Australia, and other European countries to ban the use or even the charging of Samsung Galaxy Note 7 mobile phones on any airborne aircraft in the country.

Samsung immediately after the incident recalled over 2.5 million Galaxy Note 7 devices it manufactured recently, citing several reported cases of overheating and outright explosion by users. “NCAA has directed passengers not to turn on or charge these devices on board aircraft,” said the NCAA..

“In addition, these phones must not be stowed away in any checked-in baggage and importantly, all airlines are hereby advised to emphasise the prohibition of this devices on board during passenger briefings by the Cabin Crew,” the statement added.

The saying that to be forewarned is to be forearmed comes handy here. If you are a passenger on an airline and are asked to turn off the Samsung Galaxy Note 7 or any electronic device for any reason, whether you believe it to be valid or not, please comply.

Indeed, your compliance will ensure the safety of your flight and will also save you from facing serious criminal charges from the NCAA. The same weight of the law applies to anyone caught smoking on board an aircraft.

The question many are asking is that if use of cell phones could cause obstruction to navigational aids, so why are some airlines now allowing cell phone use? Curiously, all the regulations in the world still haven’t prevented airline passengers from casually whipping out the cell phone every now and then.

About one to four cell phone calls were made during every commercial flight, according to a 2006 study from Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh. Funny enough, the FAA even had to advise aircraft crewmembers to turn off their cell phones during take-off and landing, after an incident in early 2009.

In that case, a first officer’s ringtone proved potentially distracting during take-off — but as the crew pointed out, their General Operations Manual did not prohibit them from keeping their cell phones on.

Another reason many airlines discourage cell phone usage is simple social etiquette. If a passenger wants to relax and enjoy the flight, it doesn’t serve her well to have the person in the next seat gabbing away on his cell phone.

Additionally, since cell phone reception tends to be choppy on airplanes, people need to speak louder than they usually would during a phone conversation. According to ABC News travel expert Rick Seaney, some airlines look at cell phone restrictions as a selling point for travellers looking to have a nice, quiet trip.

Airline passengers will be able to use their mobile phones on aircraft throughout landing and take-off, as long as the airline chooses to allow it, after the European aviation regulator ruled that they do not pose a risk to aircraft safety.

Under current rules, all passengers have to switch their mobile phones to “airplane mode” during take-off and landing, which switches off all transmitters and receivers, effectively making them nothing more than a handheld computer and unable to make phone calls, send text messages or transmit data.

But the EASA has now offered new guidance, which al-lows airlines to change their own rules and allow mobile phones to be used “throughout the flight”. It will be up to each airline to decide whether or not to allow the use of phones on board and each company will have to go through its own assessment process to ensure that their aircraft systems are not affected in any way by the transmission signals. EASA spokesperson Ilias Maragakis said that the latest guidance was “more about being able to offer gate-to-gate services”.

Although airlines have been able to offer customers the chance to use their phone during the cruising section of the flight for several years – something, which Lufthansa and British Airways had already taken advantage of – it has been banned during landing and take-off until now.

Even before cell phone usage was common, a number of airlines provided passengers with pay phones that were built right into their seats. Each time a call is made; a passenger scans his credit card and is charged a sum of money based on the length of his call.