5G news – latest: Rollout branded ‘reckless’ by Pilots Association amid airport chaos

Japan Airlines issued a press release Wednesday morning informing customers it would resume flights to the US on Thursday.

“Today on January 19, we have received confirmation from the FAA (Federal Aviation Administration) that there is no longer a problem with the operation of the Boeing 777 and we will resume service to the U.S. mainland with Boeing 777 from January 20,” the company said in the statement.

The airline cancelled flights on Wednesday in response to the wireless carriers’ 5G rollout.

The Independent’s David Taintor has collected a list of hub airports that have been affected by the 5G rollout.

Those airports include Boston Logan International, Chicago’s O’Hare, and the Dallas Fort Worth International airport.

For a full list of US hub airports currently experiencing delays caused by the rollout, as well as a look into which international carriers are cancelling flights, check out the story here.

Sir Tim Clark, the president of Dubai-based airline Emirates, blasted the US government and US wireless providers during an appearance on CNN Wednesday.

Mr Clark said he was not made aware of the details of the US 5G rollout until Tuesday morning. Emirates primarily operates using Boeing 777s, which are especially susceptible to the kind of instrument malfunction airline safety experts warn could be caused by 5G.

“I need to be as candid as I normally am, and say this is one of the most delinquent, utterly irresponsible issue subjects, call it what you like, I’ve seen in my aviation career because it involves organs of government, manufacturers, science, etc. And you know, the notion that, for instance, the United States government should sell its franchise for all the frequencies for a large amount of money,” he told CNN’s Richard Quest. “Somebody should have told them at the time – that the risks and the dangers they placed in certain frequency uses around field, airfields, metropolitan fields that should have been done at the time.”

The Air Line Pilots Association, which represents more than 61,000 pilots at 38 US and Canadian airlines, put out a statement last night on Twitter regarding the 5G implementation delay.

“Today we issued the following statement on the recent #5G implementation delay,” they captioned the Tweet.

The association went on to say that the delay in rollout acknowledges the seriousness of aviation safety and operational risks.

But airline passengers and shippers “deserve a commitment from the telecom companies not to launch the new 5G service at any of the airport locations identified by the FAA as being susceptible to 5G interference” until a permanent fix is found, the statement concluded.

United Airlines have advised disgruntled customers to contact the FCC amid ongoing 5G-related delays.

The company issued the message to customers whose flights had been delayed by several hours on Tuesday evening as a result of the rollout of a new 5G system across the US.

“New: @United tells customers to contact @FCC over delayed flight,” journalist David Shepardson shared on Twitter, with a screenshot of the United message attached.

The airline’s message reads: “Your flight is delayed due to potential interference caused by the implementation of a new 5G signal by telecommunications systems near Denver International Airport and its possible impact on aircraft equipment.

“If you have any concerns, please address them with the Federal Communications Commission here.”

The delay in the rollout of 5G is only the latest of several factors making companies cautious on deploying the next-generation wireless service in their operations, analysts and industry executives say.

But even beyond the two-week delay, there is no dearth of reasons that companies are being careful on 5G. The cost and complexity of bringing out new infrastructure are holding back some, as well as the less-than-ringing demand, analysts say.

“There is a lengthy time frame between making the described airwaves available at auction, conducting the auctions, then actually deploying the infrastructure to support these airwaves,” Bill Menezes, a director at Gartner Inc, told the WSJ.

“What’s more, apps that might generate demand and drive 5G adoption are still in relatively early stages of development.”

The airline industry is raising the stakes in a showdown with AT&T and Verizon over plans to launch new 5G wireless service this week, warning that thousands of flights could be grounded or delayed if the rollout takes place near major airports.

CEOs of the nation’s largest airlines say that interference from the wireless service on a key instrument on planes is worse than they originally thought.

AT&T and Verizon plan to activate their new 5G wireless service Wednesday after two previous delays from the original plan for an early December rollout.

The new high-speed 5G service uses a segment of the radio spectrum that is close to that used by altimeters, which are devices that measure the height of aircraft above the ground.

Read a full rundown of the issue here:

Allied Pilots Association spokesperson Dennis Tajer said on Tuesday suggested that the rollout of 5G near airports could put the lives of passengers at risk.

“This is reckless, it’s dangerous, and it’s got to stop,” Tajer told the Today Show on Tuesday.

“Take a pause. This is about a cellphone signal, and we’re focused on protecting lives.”

Watch the full exchange below:

‘New: @United tells customers to contact @FCC over delayed flight’, he writes, with a screenshot of the United message attached.

Before the roll-out of 5G was slammed to a halt near airports, a health expert warned the entire network should be delayed to further investigate potential risks of “adverse health effects”.

Professor John William Frank from the Usher Institute at the University of Edinburgh claimed that no more transmitter towers should be built in order to limit public exposure while safety standards are reviewed.

In an opinion piece published in the Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health, Professor Frank wrote that the radio frequency electromagnetic fields (RF-EMFs) emitted by 5G towers could cause negative “biological effects”

“A growing number of engineers, scientists, and doctors internationally [are] calling on governments to raise their safety standards for RF-EMFs, commission more and better research, and hold off on further increases in public exposure, pending clearer evidence of safety,” he wrote.

“It is highly likely that each of these many forms of transmission causes somewhat different biological effects – making sound, comprehensive and up-to-date research on those effects virtually impossible.”

The Independent’s Anthony Cuthbertson has the full story: