The 5G-airlines crisis was mostly averted. Here's what happened - and what we still don't know

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Warnings of mass flight cancellations came as AT&T, Verizon and the airline industry hashed out a deal to delay 5G deployment around major airports. And on Thursday, the Federal Aviation Administration cleared a greater number of commercial airliners to fly in the situations where pilots consider possible 5G interference to be the most dangerous. Now, nearly 80% of the United States’ entire commercial airliner fleet has that clearance.

But we’re not in the clear yet.

The agreement to delay 5G deployment around airports is only a temporary fix, and it’s not clear if all the negotiating parties have a specific deadline they’re working toward. A significant number of planes still haven’t been cleared to land in those most dangerous situations. Regional air carriers have been crying out that they’ve been left out of discussions and are still facing long- and short-term impacts. And, to the public’s knowledge, a permanent solution to the issue still hasn’t been settled on.

Here’s everything we do — and don’t — know about the situation.

What’s the deal with the FAA ‘clearing’ some planes but not others?

Radar altimeters are devices that uses radio waves to gauge how far an aircraft is off the ground, and they’re essential for commercial airliners to land in bad weather. At the root of the ongoing problem is the fact that 5G frequencies Verizon and AT&T have just deployed, known as the C-band, are very near to the frequencies used by radar altimeters, sparking concerns about interference.

Over the past two weeks, radar altimeter manufacturers have scrambled to “evaluate data from the wireless companies to determine how robust each model” of radar altimeter is and whether it can still function even when flying near an active 5G antenna, according to the FAA.

In a statement Thursday, the FAA said it issued more approvals that allow 78% of the US commercial airliner fleet to perform low-visibility landings at airports near where wireless companies deployed 5G. Essentially,…

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Source : cnn