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YOU finally repack your laptop after the airport security check, fasten your seatbelt and settle down into your seat with a packet of stale pretzels. Then the passengers on either side of your cramped economy-class seat start chatting on their mobile phones. The result: “Air rage” meets “cell yell”.

The US authorities are reviewing a 14-year ban on mobile phone use on board flights, and a debate has broken out between business travellers and tourists over whether mobile phone use should be allowed on aircraft.

The Association of Corporate Travel Executives said that 53 per cent of its members wanted the ban on using mobile phones removed. But a survey of 702 passengers, conducted by the Association of Flight Attendants, found that 63 per cent of respondents wanted mobiles to stay switched off on board aircraft.

Even Cingular, America’s largest mobile phone network, said that the ban should stay. Paul Roth, of Cingular, said: “We believe there is a time and a place for wireless phone conversations, and seldom does that include the confines of an airplane flight.”

At a recent congressional hearing, John Mica, the chairman of the House of Representatives’ aviation subcommittee said that passengers already suffered disruption from the use of electronic gadgets.

He said: “The last thing most air passengers want is to be forced to listen to their neighbour chat on their cell phone about their ailments, dating problems, the latest reality TV show or up to the minute estimated time of arrivals for the duration of the flight.”

The Federal Communications Commission, which regulates the American telephone network, proposed lifting the ban on mobile phone use aboard commercial flights in US airspace.

But the Federal Aviation Authority, which regulates the country’s air traffic, said that the ban prevented interference with navigation systems. Passengers on the aircraft used in the September 11 attacks conveyed information to the ground by using mobile phones.

But the US Government said that if the ban were lifted terrorists could use mobile phones on aircraft to co-ordinate attacks. The Department of Homeland Security added that, in an emergency, the authorities would have to be able to intercept calls within ten minutes, identify the seat number of the caller and stop all calls.

In Britain, the Civil Aviation Authority said that safety concerns made the early introduction of mobile phones on flights unlikely.

A spokesman said: “Standard phones still have the potential for interfering with aircraft systems and you cannot use them; that is a European directive. They are not intended for use in the air and could be a danger to navigational communication systems.”

Guy Kewney, an expert in aviation electronics and the editor of newswireless.net, rejected the CAA’s claims. He said that technology allowing the use of mobile phones on aircraft would be in place within a year and that it would be compatible with existing mobile phones.

“The problem isn’t that phones interfere with avionics, that is accepted by just about everyone.

“If it was dangerous to use a phone, they would have detectors on board. In fact, pilots use their own phones,” he said.

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