On January 19, a number of major airlines around the world suspended several flights to and from the United States due to 5G band problems, making the global civil aviation order that had been stirred up by the epidemic even more chaotic.
Grounded because of the "AMERICAN version of 5G"
Jan. 19 is the "big day" of the first anniversary of the inauguration of US President Joe Biden, and in order to save the declining poll support, he specially arranged a press conference on this day, but the effect seems to be mediocre at present - it is not bad, the major airlines have also chosen to join him on this day, and have suspended their own flights to the United States.
British Airways cancelled flights from London to Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco and New York on the same day; Emirates will use Boeing aircraft to travel between Dubai and nine U.S. destinations (Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Miami, New York, Orlando, San Francisco, Seattle); Air India canceled all flights between Delhi and New York, Chicago, San Francisco, as well as flights between Mumbai and New York, and several other major international airlines, including Japan Airlines (JAL), All Nippon Airways (ANA), Korean Air and other major international airlines, have also announced suspensions on flights to and from the United States.
In a statement, Emirates President Sir Tim Clark apologized to customers for the flight suspension and said he would strive to resume flights on the 21st-22nd.
The grounding was due to the fact that on January 19, two large communications companies, Verizon and AT&T, planned to open 5G networks, and more than 100 U.S. airports were also covered within the radiation range of 5G signal towers. The United States uses a specific radio frequency band of the "C-band" 3.70-3.98 GHz, which is closer to the 4.2-4.4 GHz radio frequency band designated for use in the flight altimeter of civil aviation aircraft than the 5G band used by most countries outside Of North America.
Once the flight altimeter is disturbed, the near-earth warning system (GPWS) is closely related to flight safety. Automatic landing systems, etc., can be disrupted and may mislead pilots, making it difficult for aircraft to land in harsh weather conditions, resulting in serious safety hazards and fatal consequences. 、
Many sources contradict each other, such as some sources saying that "Boeing 787 aircraft are relatively less susceptible to frequency band interference", but others list boeing 777 and Boeing 787 as aircraft susceptible to frequency band interference. It can be concluded that the Boeing 777 is the most prominent model susceptible to frequency band interference, and this twin-engine long-range wide-body airliner is the main model of transoceanic international routes in recent years, which is why almost all of the temporary suspensions are transoceanic international flights, and some airlines that still retain "obsolete" four-engine long-range airliners despite economics, such as Virgin Atlantic Airways, which does not have a Boeing 777, have even called luck. Emirates, which has the most grounded flights, is also glad that it did not heed the advice of the civil aviation industry consultant to "stop all Airbus A380s to avoid flying more and more losses", and it is precisely because it retains several flights to and from the United States and uses A380s that the airline's flights to the United States will not be "completely destroyed".
Immortals fight Little devils suffer
The two U.S. telecommunications companies originally planned to launch 5G services on December 5, 2021, but in October 2020, the U.S. Aeronautical Radio Technology Commission (RTCA) released a report saying that the 3.70-3.98 band 5G signals used in the United States "may cause harmful interference to the radar altimeters of various types of civilian aircraft, thus posing a significant risk."
The U.S. communications industry scoffed: the Wireless Communications and Internet Society (CTIA) issued a statement saying that "as many as 40 countries around the world use the C-band 5G standard, but never reported the risk", arguing that the RTCA report is "unfounded", and the two communications companies insist that their systems are "no problem" and will be "delivered as scheduled".
On December 31, U.S. Federal Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and Federal Transportation Authority (FAA) Commissioner Steve Dickinson sent a joint letter to AT&T CEO John Stankey and Verizon CEO Hans Vestberg, advising the two companies to "delay opening 5G until concerns are clarified."
On January 9, the two CEOs issued statements not only strongly rejecting the requests of the two air traffic control "bosses", saying that "the 5G band safety problem has long been solved and does not exist", and accusing the federal Transportation Department and the FAA of "gross interference and wanton trampling on democratic procedures and regulations", and even contradicting each other, accusing the FAA of not collecting data on the flight altimeter until last November, and also demanding reimbursement from communications companies for this.
The two CEOs may also be wary of the possible public outcry, so they have made some compromise gestures, saying that they could consider setting up a "C-band signal level reduction zone" around some airport runways until July 5, 2022.
In addition, they have twice announced the "postponement of 5G start-up" for a period of two weeks. January 19 was originally the latest 5G launch day chosen.
On the same day, the FAA issued a statement saying that it "will consider the proposals of the two CEOs to operate 5G without compromising aviation safety," but "reserves the right to notify the Air Mission (NOTAM) system in the event that the issue remains unresolved to limit the right to interfere with regional aviation by 5G signals."
Eu 5G uses 3.4-3.8GHz channels, the distance between its high frequency and flight altimeter low frequency is lower than the US 5G standard, and countries generally imitate France, setting a "buffer zone" between the high frequency of the 5G band and the low frequency of the flight altimeter, and reducing the frequency of the 5G tower around the airport.
Japan is the only country in the world where the high end of the 5G band is closer to the lower end of the flight altimeter band than the United States (using the 3.6-4.1 and 4.5-4.8 GHz bands), but from 2020, Japan has implemented a remedy that prohibits the construction of any 5G high-power base stations within 200 meters of the route and airport.
The problem in the United States is that first of all, CTIA and communication companies risk raising the upper limit of the frequency band to enhance the commercial competitiveness of 5G (the higher the frequency band, the greater the commercial attractiveness); secondly, CTIA and the FAA have "fairy fights" for their own standard interests, and the result is that the argument is long overdue, resulting in the imminent opening of 5G, only to find that hundreds of airports are surrounded by base stations, and the key argument of "whether it constitutes interference with the flight altimeter" has not yet been completed; third, after the problem is highlighted, they are eager to shirk responsibility. But they are unwilling to show their due responsibility.
That's why Emirates President Clark was furious in an interview with CNN, accusing the "5G outage" of being one of the "most irlinquent, utterly irresponsible" events he has ever seen in his civil aviation career.
Trouble is yet to come
The January 19 "5G suspension storm" temporarily ended with Verizon and AT&T postponing the start of 5G base stations around the airport.
However, this is only a temporary arrangement in any case: CTIA and the two communications companies still insist on the "no security issues", agreeing to "suspend" at most 50 FAA-designated "buffer" airports for "no more than two weeks"; the FAA continues to emphasize "retaining the right to close routes when needed" – crucially, neither side is willing to be held accountable for any accident, nor is it willing to pay additional costs for plugging security loopholes and avoiding accidents, despite these hidden dangers. It was originally caused by their original short-sightedness, greed and miscalculation.
The FAA noted that once 5G is fully operational, flights at some airports "may have to face delays and restrictions," potentially affecting as many as 6,834 fixed-wing civilian aircraft and 1,828 civilian helicopters, directly involving operator costs of up to $580,890 — and that's just a rough estimate.
According to Thomson Reuters, what was suspended on the 19th was only the work of 5G base stations within two miles of the US airport, and other base stations were still started as scheduled.
To the surprise of CTIA and two communications companies, panic seems to be spreading in the civil aviation industry and the investment and financial circles: 10 of the largest U.S. civil aviation companies, including American Airlines, Delta Air Lines, and United Airlines, have jointly issued a joint call for regulators to ban the installation of 5G base stations around airports The North American Airlines Pilots Association (ALPA), which is made up of 61,000 pilots from 38 U.S. and Canadian airlines, accused the parties involved of being "extremely irresponsible" in the "5G interference incident," welcoming the decision to delay the opening of 5G base stations around the airport for two weeks, but saying that "this is not a permanent solution."
But where is the "permanent solution"? Whether it is to eliminate the existing 5G frequency band, follow the example of Japan's dismantling of the airport and the 200-meter high-frequency base station around the route, or simply modify the frequency band used in the flight altimeter, it will involve all aspects and bring a lot of additional costs, which no one is willing to pay, in fact, I am afraid can not afford.
On the day of the "5G suspension", Boeing's stock price plummeted by 3.5% in a single day as Boeing admitted that the flight altimeter of its main ocean-going model, the Boeing 777 aircraft, was susceptible to interference in the 5G band in the United States, and the company's market value evaporated by as much as $5 billion - and this may be just the beginning, because everything has been a "drag" so far, and the trouble is still to come.
The troubles encountered by the United States in the process of promoting 5G may also give us a wake-up call: the benefits and risks of containing too many "new things" and pioneering major infrastructure projects are equally huge and unpredictable, and "more wins, less is not enough" is the only way to keep in mind at all times.