5G towers can disable aircraft and lead to catastrophic consequences and chaos

American airlines have reached out to the Federal Aviation Administration, the White House, the Department of Transportation and the Federal Communications Commission, expressing fears of a looming aviation crisis due to the rollout of 5G networks.

What is known

The letter was signed by a number of carriers, including American Airlines, Delta Air Lines, United Airlines, Southwest Airlines, UPS Airlines, FedEx Express. According to them, the launch of fifth-generation networks by AT&T and Verizon, scheduled for January 19, 2022, could cause "chaos" and lead to "catastrophic" consequences in the air travel market.

The fear is related to the launch of 5G networks in the C band near airports. The letter states that the commissioning of 5G towers may disrupt the operation of aircraft on-board electronics. This in turn will lead to the postponement or cancellation of more than 1,000 flights, affecting about 100,000 passengers on domestic and international flights.

The companies have proposed creating buffer zones so that 5G towers are located at least 3.2 km from the runways. Representatives of cellular operators AT&T and Verizon do not comment on this issue. Recall that they spent about $ 80 billion on the purchase of licenses for the use of the C-band.

A source: Reuters