It is still not clear whether the various calls placed from planes hijacked by terrorists on Tuesday were from cell phones or air phones. The latter are wireless pay phones built into some aircraft seats. Air phones don’t interfere with cellular networks but the effect of cell phones on commercial aircraft systems is a matter of debate.
Those calls may provide authorities with some clues as to what was happening aboard the aircraft in their final minutes. If it is determined that cell phones could provide some small amount of deterrence to would-be hijackers, that would add one more element to the cell phone debate.
Source: Simon Romeo, New Perspective on the Issue of Cell Phone Use in Planes, New York Times, September 14, 2001.
For text
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/09/14/technology/14CELL.html?searchpv=nytToday
For more on Terrorism http://www.ncpa.org/pi/congress/cong9.html
FMF\18 September 2001
