American Airlines warns of canceling nearly 1,000 flights, grounding some indefinitely as...

American Airlines thinks
5G signal will affect flight safety

According to the latest information, in view of the imminent full rollout of 5G, American Airlines has warned that this will cause American Airlines to "grind to a halt" and the planes will be grounded!

Several airlines, including Atlas, FedEx and UPS, have warned the U.S. government that they will have to cancel more than 1,000 flights, some of which will be cancelled, unless there is no planned 5G signal within a two-mile radius around major airports. Grounded "indefinitely".

A group of airlines, including Atlas, FedEx and UPS, has warned the US government, that otherwise they will have to cancel more than 1,000 flights, with some aircraft grounded "indefinitely".

Airlines and telcos have been arguing over 5G for about four years, and yesterday (19th) came a moment when Verizon and AT&T were set to unveil their multi-billion-dollar technology investments.

The company claims this will affect the radar flight altimeter, which provides "critical information for other safety and navigation systems... Multiple modern systems on the aircraft will be inoperable. Aircraft manufacturers have informed us that a large operational fleet may be required indefinitely. grounded".

The airlines are urging the FAA to identify the base stations closest to key airport runways and prevent them from being erected within two miles. They added that "most" of the "50 large airports" that had been identified would be subject to flight restrictions tomorrow, but those airports would not receive a financial "relief".

The airline called the situation a "completely avoidable economic disaster" and urged the FAA to take "whatever action is necessary" to avoid "catastrophic disruption."

"Frankly, business in this country will come to a standstill."

Calling the situation “a completely avoidable economic calamity”, they urge the FAA to take “whatever action is necessary” to avoid “catastrophic disruption”.

“To be blunt, the nation’s commerce will grind to a halt.”

The letter has been sent to the President's Executive Office, the Department of Transportation, the FAA and the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).

The telecom operator also handed an angry letter to the U.S. Department of Transportation and the FAA this month, claiming that airlines had two years to upgrade their altimeters but "inexplicably" did nothing.

"It was not until November 2, 2021, that the FAA issued a notice to begin collecting data on altimeters from the aviation industry," they wrote.

The telco also argues that other countries already have 5G, but it has not affected the aviation industry: "U.S. planes fly in and out of France on a daily basis with full FAA approval. France provides a realistic operating environment wher 5G and aviation can safely coexist. Example. The laws of physics are the same in the U.S. and France.”

According to an article in The Verge, 5G "has been rolled out in 40 countries without any causing altimeter malfunctions, although some of them are running it at lower power levels".

But it added: "The problem is that not every aircraft has a modern radar altimeter. Both acknowledge that at least some altimeters are affected by signals outside the expected frequency band. To be clear, this is a malfunction - but in C -This failure is not relevant until the band goes live. As it stands, it's unclear how many altimeters are out of order and how they will cope with the high volume of 5G traffic. Because even a single interference-related incident is It would be a tragedy, and it would be difficult for airlines to reassure this 5G rollout.”

The telcos also face a deadline -- not only have they spent about $65 billion on their debuts, but AT&T plans to shut down its existing network next month, so it must replac it with 5G.

What may not be clear is why it took airlines and related agencies so long to act despite prior knowledge of the issues. Of course, that's probably the same reason airlines simply can't afford more disruption -- their attention and money are being taken over by the pandemic.

The government had asked AT&T and Verizon to hold off on 5G, "even though thousands of people have been working on it for nearly a year, despite the billions we've spent on our networks...even though the wireless industry last year made a dent in C-band spectrum." The plan was postponed to January 19 local time at the request of the government, but under the deterrence of a joint letter from the airlines, AT&T and Verizon once again delayed the activation of 5G networks at some major airports.

China Airlines and EVA Air have changed the departure time of 3 flights to avoid the activation of 5G, and even temporarily suspended flights to the United States. After the U.S. telecommunications company retreated, China Airlines and Evergreen also followed up and announced that their flights to the United States were normal.

China Airlines' CI003 flight to San Francisco took off 4 hours earlier to avoid the 5G activation time; Evergreen's BR12 Taipei-Los Angeles and BR32 Taipei-New York took off 3 hours later, pending further technical guidance from the FAA.

Evergreen said that the company received the latest FAA approval of the Airworthiness Alternative Conformance Method (AMOC) in the afternoon, and it flew to the relevant airports in the United States to temporarily eliminate the doubts of 5G interference, and subsequent flights to and from the United States will maintain normal takeoffs and landings.

China Airlines pointed out that it will follow the in-flight notices issued by the FAA and Boeing to prevent aircraft from being interfered by 5G signals.