It will do that if you are in Standby mode. What models are these Toshiba laptops? Have both of you loaded the latest updates from Toshiba? Do both of you have your Bios up to date?
Usually when the unit wakes up, it will be in Wireless Off & Airplane mode on. Once it wakes up and the wireless wakes up, the Airplane mode should turn off and Wireless turns back on.
Make sure that the adapter is not set to allow it to control putting the unit to sleep. Also make sure in Advanced Power settings, that you do not allow the laptop to go into Hibernate mode. You can disable Hibernate from a Command Window as administrator, then use without the quotes "powercfg /hibernate off" to disable.
It appears that this is a common case with Windows 8.x and all units. In that Airplane mode goes into effect when the unit is placed into Standby or Hibernate.