to enhance your phone’s battery performance, since searching for and sustaining a cellular signal, Wi-Fi connection, or Bluetooth device can indeed be pretty demanding on your phone.
But what truly occurs if you fail to activate Airplane Mode during a flight? Is there a risk of imprisonment? Does your phone face repercussions? Responses may vary depending on whom you consult, but in general, the consensus is that nothing significant happens. When posed with this question by Travel + Leisure, Gary Coxe, a seasoned pilot and flight instructor with 7,000 flying hours, stated, “not a darn thing.”
PerchPoint, a TikTok user, pilot, and veteran of the U.S. Army, resonated with Coxe’s remarks in a viral video from December 2024 concerning Airplane Mode: “No, your plane won’t crash, and it won’t interfere with the systems onboard. However, it could potentially disrupt the headsets.”
