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Will 5G make some airplanes unsafe?

Answer: It’s a heated debate.

Flickr-Airplane
There’s a pretty big brouhaha going on right now between the aviation industry and the telecommunications industry over 5G. It all boils down to whether or not new 5G technology interferes with some airplanes’ systems enough to make flying them dangerous. The answer, however, is far from clear.

Many in the aviation industry such as the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) have expressed concerns that the C-Band spectrum used for 5G transmissions can significantly affect radio altimeters in some automated cockpit systems in planes and helicopters. The Aerospace Vehicle Systems Institute (AVSI) found in a study that 5G interference can cause large variations in radio altimeters’ ability to take accurate readings. Airlines for America estimates that this could disrupt about 350,000 flights per year.

Those in the telecommunications industry, however, are not convinced. Proponents of 5G have disputed the AVSI study, saying it was based on extreme assumptions. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC), along with companies like Verizon and AT&T, have argued that the existing evidence isn’t enough to confirm these suspicions. Furthermore, many 5G proponents have pointed out that these frequencies are already in use in many other countries where U.S. airlines operate.

Basically, we really don’t have an answer yet. As AT&T put it, “It is critical that these discussions be informed by the science and the data. That is the only path to enabling experts and engineers to assess whether any legitimate coexistence issues exist.”
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