FAA not anal about CELLPHONES (Part II)

[Gorilla]

I had an occasion in an MD-80 that I am convinced was a cellphone. I'm not going to describe the setup beyond saying it was a false glideslope that tried to drive us into the dirt. I've never before or since seen a false glideslope; it's either flagged red, or dead-on, and the timing of the event... It was about three minutes after the FA's were completely seated for landing. My theory is some dude waited until then to make his call - "Yeah we're 5 minutes out, come pick me up", that kind of thing.

The false glidepath showed us continually high on GS. A descent rate of 1200 did not take us to the GS needle. We figured it out when we cross-checked our altitude and DME, and realized we were well below glidepath. We leveled off, and about 20 seconds later the needle snapped back to a correct position.

I can't prove it, but I strongly suspect a cell phone.

 

[FL420]

I had an occasion in an MD-80 that I am convinced was a cellphone. I'm not going to describe the setup beyond saying it was a false glideslope that tried to drive us into the dirt. I've never before or since seen a false glideslope; it's either flagged red, or dead-on, and the timing of the event... It was about three minutes after the FA's were completely seated for landing. My theory is some dude waited until then to make his call - "Yeah we're 5 minutes out, come pick me up", that kind of thing.

The false glidepath showed us continually high on GS. A descent rate of 1200 did not take us to the GS needle. We figured it out when we cross-checked our altitude and DME, and realized we were well below glidepath. We leveled off, and about 20 seconds later the needle snapped back to a correct position.

I can't prove it, but I strongly suspect a cell phone.

False glideslopes are pretty rare but not unheard of. Lots of incident reports about them are out there. That's why you must know the ILS service volume and religiously cross-check the altitude at the published G/S intercept altitude. That's not to say your experience wasn't cell phone related.

We were crossing the threshhold at KMSP in a B757 just getting ready to flare when a very loud, almost to the point of pain, burst of tones came through our headsets. It sounded like about 10 digits as if from a cellphone speed dialing. Thank God it was over almost as soon as it started.

I can't say for sure it was a conventional cellphone because we had Secret Service and media on board and they tend to have some specialized communication equipment.

 

[great cornholio]

My buddy was flying a king air and had pretty much the same false G/S thing happen to him. I think he heard one of his pax cells ringing or something at the same time it happned. So hes pretty sure that it was cell phone related. Only problems I've ever had with cell phones is sometimes we hear a noise in the headsets if one of us forgets to turn our phone off and one of us gets a call. It doesnt happend all of the time, but often enough that it didnt take long to put 2 and 2 together. So I dont think they should be allowed to be used on planes cause it seems that they do cause some problems even if its not everyday, it still happens enough that the phones should stay off. Oh I just remembered that I heard a story of a guy where he wasnt picking up the G/S and somehow realized that his phone was on so he turned it off and then the G/S started working right away (no NOTAMs and the tower said that the G/S was on and no other A/C reported the problem)

 

[metrodriver]

I had a localizer needle going hard in the corner. Could hear the moron yelling in his phone that we were 10 minutes out. Luckily high enough to avoid the granite sticking up into the cumulus