Can airplane mode in my smartphone protect me from BTS triangulation?

yes it can

no but turning it off and leaving it under a rock is a good start

I am using a Samsung Galaxy S4 and if i go on Flight mode, it gets disconnected from the cellphone network and can't be pinged either.
I know this, because i have built a GSM BTS myself with Ettus Research cards and a PC, connecting about 50 Users to my own private GSM cell phone network.
As said, when i go into flight mode with my Samsung, it can't be reacheed, nor is it visible on the BTS User list of available cell phones in reach.
Can't imagin this being different on 3G or LTE.
It was the same with my old iPhone 3Gs. Flight mode = no connection and not visible.

nice try NSA

Is turning off cellular radio power in emode menu basically the same thing airplane mode does?

No NSA here.
Buy yourself a USB SDR, scan for frequencies on GSM, 3G or whatever you use and see if you're sending out any signals.
My smartphoe does not when on flight mode.

Yea.
If the phone can't repond to base stations,then they can't triangulate you.

Why do you need three points?
brainlet here

ah nvm I see it now, you get two possible solutions if you only have two towers

Librem 5 will have selective hardware killswitches for that very reason. Is there any other phone with that feature?

>Why do you need three points?
For triangulation.
In some cases, you can't exactly get a position of a signal if you have only two stations that are locating it.
For example if the signal happens to be exactly somewhere between the two stations trying to locate the signal.

I think the Pine Phone has plans for this too

antenna triangulation is like a college bachelors level senior project, its really not hard or new.

>can a placebo software toggle protect me from (((them)))
nope

so gps doen't work either?