Major airline CEOs warn of 'catastrophic' aviation crisis when delayed 5G roll out finally

 

The chief executives of major U.S. passenger and cargo carriers on Monday warned of an impending 'catastrophic' aviation crisis on Wednesday when AT&T and Verizon finally deploy their new 5G services.

The two companies have spent tens of billions of dollars to license the 3.7 to 3.98 GHz frequency range for its new high-speed C-Band 5G service.

But officials with the FAA and airplane manufacturer Boeing have warned that there is potential for interference with vital aircraft instruments that operate in the 4.2 to 44 GHz range, such as radio altimeters that tell pilots their altitude as they fly in low visibility. 

In short, the fear is that false altitude readings could confuse pilots as they approach the runway in poor visibility conditions, with potentially disastrous results. 

The executives warned that some planes could even be grounded permanently over the safety concerns.

And on a day like Sunday when winter weather gripped the nation, the CEOs claim in their letter that interference to airplanes' altimeters could result in 'more than 1,100 flights and 100,000 passengers would be subjected to cancellations, diversions or delays.'

Other planes could be grounded permanently because the altimeter provides signals to their mandated safety features. 

Action is urgent, they added in the letter, writing: 'To be blunt, the nation´s commerce will grind to a halt.' 

It was signed by the chief executives of American Airlines, JetBlue Delta Air Lines, United Airlines and Southwest Airlines, as well as officials from FedEx Express and UPS Airlines.

When that happens, the airline CEOs warned federal officials on Monday, a significant number of widebody aircrafts will become unusable and  'could potentially strand tens of thousands of Americans overseas.'

'Unless our major hubs are cleared to fly, the vast majority of the traveling and shipping public will essentially be grounded,' the CEOs wrote.

'The harm that will result from deployment on January 19 is substantially worse than we anticipated for two key reasons,' they explained.

For one, they said, even though the FAA announced it had cleared for use two radar altimeters used in some Boeing and Airbus jets so they could perform low-visibility landings at many airports where 5G C-band will be deployed, the list did not include many large airports.

Additionally, they argued, because radio altimeters provide critical information to other safety and navigation systems in modern airplanes, multiple modern safety systems 'will be deemed unusable.'

'Airplane manufacturers have informed us that there are huge swaths of the operating fleet that may need to be indefinitely grounded.' 

'The ripple effects across both passenger and cargo operations, our workforce and the broader economy are simply incalculable,' the CEOs wrote as they asked officials 'that 5G be implemented everywhere in the country except within the approximate 2 miles of airport runways' at some key airports.

'Immediate intervention is needed to avoid significant operational disruption to air passengers, shippers, supply chain and delivery of needed medical supplies.'

The carriers added they urge action to ensure '5G is deployed except when towers are too close to airport runways until the FAA can determine how that can be safely accomplished without catastrophic disruption.' 

The letter, which was obtained by DailyMail.com, went to White House National Economic Council director Brian Deese, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, FAA Administrator Steve Dickson and Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel.