Can a few cell phones being turned on really disrupt a plane? Not to use a hackneyed analogy, but we can put a man on the moon but can't design a plane that doesn't get interferance from a cell?

I'm not going to name names *caughmyfiancecaugh*but I know a number of people that ignore the requests from pilots and flight attendants to turn off all electronic devices when the plane is about to land or take off... and so far (knock on wood) nothing bad has happened. So what's the deal? DNewsChannel has the full monty on all the story