A BRITISH passenger was recently jailed for refusing to turn off his cellphone during a flight. The judge suggested that airlines should now confiscate all passengers’ phones before take-off, switch them off and return them on landing. This prompted warnings from the airlines industry that some phones may have timers which could switch themselves on during the flight, and no one would notice the danger.
Curiosity aroused, we ran a simple test. Wrapping a cellphone in just one layer of cooking foil completely killed its reception. So if you confiscate phones and dump them in a sealed metal box, it…
