AirPods 3 and airplanes do not mix well. Many travelers report an unbearable screeching noise during flights, linked to the active noise cancellation.
They promised absolute silence. But at 12,000 meters, the AirPods Pro 3 start… howling. Literally. What was supposed to be a bubble of calm turns into a concert of whistles. Ironically, Apple’s most advanced headphones seem to lose their musicality once they take flight. A twist of fate for headphones designed to tame the sounds of the world.
A screeching sound from nowhere
The first to raise the alarm is not an average passenger, but the famous blogger Basic Apple Guy. A well-known figure among Apple enthusiasts. In a lengthy account published on his site, he describes his transatlantic flight that turned into chaos.
On board the plane, everything was fine until a piercing whistle emanated from his left AirPod 3. The ear tip may have come loose, triggering a chain reaction.
The external microphone picks up the noise, the system tries to compensate, creates a feedback loop… and everything explodes in the ear. This caused him immediate pain, amplified by cabin pressure.
Every attempt to adjust the earbud worsened the situation. Just touching the microphone with a finger intensified the screeching. “Horrible,” he summarizes.
An avalanche of testimonies
Shortly after his article was published, messages flooded in. On his blog, on Reddit, on X: the stories are eerily similar. Always at the same altitude, always the same left earbud, always the same piercing cry.
“Everything is fine on the ground, but it’s awful in the plane,” writes an AirPod 3 user. Another recounts finding a temporary remedy – yawning.
The act releases pressure in the ear, the screeching fades… before returning a few minutes later. A third notes that the noise disappears in transparency mode and reappears once active noise cancellation is turned on.
At this point, the culprit seems to be the noise cancellation algorithm, disrupted by cabin pressurization. The AirPods Pro 3 utilize a multitude of internal and external microphones to analyze ambient noise and generate an opposing wave.
This is the key to their magical silence. But at altitude, this perfect mechanism goes haywire.
Air density decreases, vibrations change, and the foam of the ear tips – denser than in previous models – reacts poorly. The microphone, misled by pressure variations, interprets an internal sound as noise to be eliminated.
The device tries to compensate for it… triggering a mini feedback effect, similar to that of a microphone too close to a speaker.
The foam tips accused first
Apple replaced the soft silicone tips of the AirPods Pro 2 with new foam tips designed to provide better grip and softer insulation. In reality, their density seems to hinder proper ventilation. Air no longer circulates adequately, heat accumulates, and internal pressure rises.
The seal loses flexibility, the external microphone picks up amplified sounds, and the software attempts to correct the impossible. The phenomenon then becomes nearly inevitable during rapid pressure changes, such as during ascent or descent.
Engineers aimed to trap the noise of the world, but instead, they trapped… silence itself. For now, Apple has released no official statement, updates, or recalls. Those who attempted an exchange in-store report that the replacements suffer from the same defect. Maybe our left ears are just not compatible with Apple?
