Air India cancels most US flights for 2nd day over 5G safety worry

For the second day in a row, Air India cancelled most of its flights on the India-US routes over safety concerns pertaining to the 5G communications rollout in the US and its possible hazardous effect on aircraft navigation systems. Six return flights—three of which were scheduled to depart India for the US Thursday—were cancelled, said an airline source. A day earlier, the airline had cancelled eight return flights.

A total of 734 passengers who had checked in for three flights scheduled for early Wednesday have been accommodated in hotels, the source said, adding Air India hopes to get a clearance to operate its Boeing 777 flights to the US to fly the stranded flyers.

Later in the day, President Biden said service providers have agreed to delay 5G deployment around key airports.

Among the Thursday cancellations were Air India flights from Delhi to Newark, Chicago and San Francisco. At the time of going to press, sources said that Air India was likely to operate the Delhi-New York-Delhi and Delhi-Washington-Delhi flights. A decision on the Mumbai-Newark flight was pending. “Washington airport doesn’t have 5G C-band transmission stations in the vicinity and so flights to this destination won’t be affected,” said an airline source.

By David Koenig Washington, Jan 15 (AP) Federal safety officials are directing operators of some Boeing planes to adopt extra procedures when landing on wet or snowy runways near impending 5G service because, they say, interference from the wireless networks could mean that the planes need more room

The problem pertains to 5G services using frequencies in a radio spectrum called the C-band as these frequencies are close to those used by a radio altimeter installed on board aircraft. Since a radio altimeter is the only sensor onboard an aircraft that gives accurate information of an aircraft’s height over ground, any interference with its readings could be hazardous. Consequently, in December, the US aviation regulator, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), issued a directive that essentially banned all low-visibility landings once 5G was deployed. The 5G rollout was postponed from January 5 to allow the FAA time to work out a solution.

International Airlines
Major international airlines are either rejigging their flight schedules to the US or cancelling them altogether amid concerns over rollout of 5G mobile phone technology near US airports. Two US telecom giants — AT&T and Verizon — had announced they would be activating their 5G networks

In a temporary respite to airlines, FAA recently issued a list of radio altimeter models (installed on Boeing aircraft) which were found to be “robust” enough against 5G C-band interference. Among these are the Boeing 777 and 787 aircraft, which are also the planes that Air India operates to the US. Boeing aircraft equipped with these permitted altimeters can continue low-visibility landings in the 5G C-Band deployment areas till January 31, said the FAA in a letter sent to Boeing, dated January 18. Altimeter manufacturers evaluated data from the wireless companies to determine how robust each (radio altimeter) model is, it said. “This work has shown some altimeters are reliable and accurate in the 5G areas, others must be retrofitted or replaced,” it said.

The FAA has also issued a long list of airports to which aircraft equipped with these particular radio altimeters can operate even in low-visibility conditions. The list covers all the US airports that Air India operates to, except New York-JFK. “But if Air India’s Boeing 777 and Boeing 787 aircraft are not equipped with that particular model of radio altimeters then the airline’s US flights will continue to be hit till the time the altimeters are not retrofitted or replaced or some other solution is reached,” said a source.

AT&T and Verizon agreed Tuesday to a partial delay in activating their 5G networks to allay airline safety concerns but several major international carriers said they were canceling or amending some US services.

A statement from Air India was awaited at the time of going to press. Meanwhile, the US government will be working to find a solution that would allow 5G signals and aviation to safely co-exist, the White House said in a statement dated January 18. indiatimes.com