Federation Of Indian Pilots Raises Concern Over Potential '5G Signal Interference' With Aircraft Safety Systems

The Federation wrote a letter to the Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya M Scindia requesting that DGCA and TRAI lay down a plan to enable safe and efficient implementation of 5G mobile network.

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New Delhi: The Federation of Indian Pilots (FIP) has raised its concerns over the potential interference of 5G wireless signals with sensitive aircraft equipment like Radio Altitude Metre, thus risking aviation safety.

The Federation wrote a letter to the Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya M Scindia requesting that the Directorate General of Civil Aviation work with the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India to lay down a plan that would enable safe and efficient implementation of 5G mobile communications network in the C-band, the frequency band that is allocated for commercial telecommunication via satellites. 

In the letter dated January 4, FIP stated: “It is critical to fully understand and mitigate potential 5G signal interference with radio altimeters that are integral to aircraft safety systems. We understand the activation of these services is scheduled to commence soon in select cities in India.”

The 6000-pilot federation asked for the constitution of an expert panel including representatives from government and industry to jointly develop viable and sustainable solutions for safe deployment before activation of 5G.

The United States Federal Aviation Administration (US FAA), had earlier last year, released a Safety Alert for Operators (SAFO) where it raised concerns over possible interference of 5G signals with aircraft radio altimeters.

Following the caution by the US FAA, US Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg requested the US Telecom companies to delay the rollout of 5G services.

Two US telecom operators AT&T and Verizon had initially rejected the government's request but then agreed to delay the 5G rollout by two weeks.