As high-speed 5G wireless networks roll in around the world, pilots in the US are reporting persistent problems with aircraft’s radio (radar) altimeters, which they rely on during takeoff and landing, and with mountains. Help you avoid crashing.
These altimeters also feed into the vital autopilot, auto-throttle and instrument landing systems.
Complaints of malfunctions and failures have increased since the rollout of high-speed 5G wireless networks earlier this year, according to an analysis of the IEEE Spectrum (the world’s leading engineering journal) report to NASA’s Aviation Safety Reporting System (ASRS). , which use the same C-band frequencies.
In January this year, at least three flights over Tennessee in the US experienced simultaneous altimeter errors, making it “impossible to maintain the set altitude,” according to one of the pilots.
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One jet completely lost its autopilot, and reportedly fire trucks were waiting for it upon landing. According to the report, in February, a passenger plane near Louis Armstrong International Airport in New Orleans experienced a low altitude warning as it flew below 1,000 feet.
In March, a commercial jet landing on autopilot at Los Angeles International Airport suddenly went into an aggressive descent just 100 feet above the ground. Reportedly, all three incidents – and several more this year – were linked to problems with the plane’s radio altimeter by the pilots.
According to ASRS, a public database maintained by NASA, “between January and May, there were 93 reports of faulty or failed radar altimeters, where only a handful can be observed in a typical year.”
The ASRS includes at least 40 reports of possible 5G interference around 50 airports with buffer zones. Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport had the most complaints, with six reports.
The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has reviewed more than half the reports, and was unable to rule out 5G interference in about 80 incidents.
According to the report, the FAA provided “high-level data that indicates it has received approximately 550 such submissions since January”.
The FAA concluded that the mitigations agreed with wireless providers are “working”.
In June, it agreed with the carriers to extend those mitigations for another year.
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The US FAA initially downplayed concerns that the new cell towers and devices could interfere with commercial jet radar altimeters, which operate a few hundred megahertz high in the radio spectrum.
In the US, wireless providers led by Verizon and AT&T paid more than $80 billion for 5G frequencies. The report said that although complaints of altimeters on ASRS seem to be decreasing, many pilots still want tighter controls on 5G technology.
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