This time, a passenger struck a flight attendant

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On the cell phones. The reason the airlines have you turn them off is correctly described as an agreement with the cell operators. However it is not an evil conspiracy but rather science. The reason is that the cell tower system is not designed to switch cell sites for 100+ users as they fly at 300-600mph over them. Especially at take off, the switching relay speed through the system, would effectively shut down cell towers in a radius of 10 miles of each plane taking off. Cell phone use on planes will happen as each plane acts as a cell (for lack of better terminology) tower, and each plane's signal is pre-programmed into the cell system in a jump ahead, preprogrammed routing through towers, or as altitude increases, optionally sent upward to a satellite.

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