U.S. airline leaders have warned of the introduction of a new aircraft 5G The service could “stop” US trade due to the landing of a significant number of planes and “trap tens of thousands of Americans overseas”.
Warnings about the impending “catastrophic” plane crash have reached out to White House National Economic Council Director Brian Dees, Transport Secretary Pete Boutique, Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Administrator Steve Dixon and Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Jessica Rosanov. Reuters reported Monday.
The letter, signed by CEOs of American Airlines, Delta Air Lines, United Airlines, Southwest Airlines and JetBlue, read: “If our core destinations are not allowed to fly, most travel and shipping will be grounded to the general public.” As well as freight and parcel carriers UPS and FedEx, said.
The new C-Band 5G technology can interfere with critical aircraft equipment such as radio altimeters – determining the distance from the ground to the bottom of a flying ship – and impacting low visibility operations.
“This means that on a day like yesterday, more than 1,100 flights and 100,000 passengers will be canceled, diverted or delayed,” the letter warned, calling for urgent action.
“Frankly, the country’s trade will be paralyzed,” officials said.
Airlines to United States, The campaign committee and government agencies that organized the letter were not immediately available for comment.
In a letter dated January 4, the team thanked Boutique, Dixon and Dees for “delaying 5GC-band deployment around certain airports by two weeks and promising proposed reductions” for reaching agreements with AT&T and Verizon.
“The safety of American airlines will always be paramount,” it said. “We will continue to work with all stakeholders to ensure that the new 5G service works safely with aviation.”
As part of the agreement – which dated January 3 – AT&T and Verizon agreed to create buffer zones around 50 U.S. airports and take other steps to reduce potential disruption for six months.
But the agreement to delay the widespread implementation of the technology until January 19 has expired. At some major airports, the airline demanded that “approximately 2 miles (3.2 km) of airport runways, except 5G, be enabled in the country”.
“Immediate intervention is needed to avoid significant operational disruptions to airline passengers, ship exporters, supply chain and supply of essential medical supplies,” the Reuters letter said.
It also warned that flight restrictions would not be limited to bad weather.
“Many of the modern security systems on board are considered unusable, which poses a much bigger problem than we know … Airline manufacturers have told us that there are large-scale operating fleets that need to operate indefinitely.
Grounded. “
The airlines urged action to ensure that “until the FAA determines the use of 5G except when there are towers very close to the airport runways, it can be safely implemented without catastrophic hazards”.
On Sunday, the FAA said it had approved an estimated 45% of U.S. commercial flights making low-visibility landings at several airports using the 5G C-band since Wednesday.
The warning follows previous warnings that Medevac helicopters or hospitals and rescue missions could be affected by the technology.
According to a Bloomberg report, 5G interruptions in radio altimeters on emergency helicopters. 5G does not require turning off the altimeter, but it does provide accurate measurements.
