Why Can't You Make Phone Calls On Planes?

woman on speaker phone (l) woman shares flight issue (c) airplane on the go (r)

A flight attendant was on a plane as an airline passenger when she noticed a fellow passenger doing something that made her skin crawl.

TikToker Yasmeen (@yazgoldenn), a Los Angeles-based content creator and flight attendant, noticed another woman talking on the phone in the middle of a flight. To make matters worse, the woman was using speakerphone.

“On SPEAKER?? Commmonnn,” Yasmeen wrote in the description. Her video calling out the passenger has since received more than 3.4 million views.

Why Can’t You Make Phone Calls On Planes?

While Wi-Fi calling is technically possible on some flights, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and United States airlines typically restrict passengers from making cellular voice calls on planes. That’s because using cellular networks on a plane has the potential to interfere with ground cellular systems.

Airlines also consider cellular voice calls a potential passenger disturbance and reserve the right to boot passengers who don’t follow their rules.

Texting and other forms of Wi-Fi use are generally allowed on select carriers.

OK, But How Did She Even Place The Call?

Commenters had a lot of questions about Yasmeen’s post, but one of the most asked was, “How does she have signal?” The woman in the video was engaged in an active call, which airplanes generally prohibit altogether.

The woman could have made a phone call using Wi-Fi calling. In lieu of a standard LTE or carrier network call, Wi-Fi calling allows customers to make calls while over the internet. It relies on Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) technology, which takes individual segments of the call and breaks them down into data. Rather than sending those data packets through a standard carrier network or channel, it works through the Wi-Fi signal.

Others focused on the broader issue—that she shouldn’t have been talking on her phone in the first place.

“I’m just thinking it’s common courtesy just not to make a SPEAKER phone call while you’re around other people like that,” one commenter said.

“Yall are so rude and think you can just do whatever you want, until you find out. Welcome to the no fly list,” another claimed.

Thankfully, Yasmeen and other flight attendants have the power to stop individuals from talking on their phones—at least when they’re not paying customers flying with other airlines.