Pilots facing confusing new 5G restrictions, union chief says

Airlines and flight crews have been forced to sift through scores of new restrictions since last month’s chaotic roll-out of new 5G wireless service, aviation industry officials told lawmakers Thursday. Flight precautions imposed by the Federal Aviation Administration can vary by different runways at the same airport, according to testimony at the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee’s aviation panel. Pilots are forced to perform extensive workarounds that “we expect will be needed for the foreseeable future,” Joe DePete, president of the Air Line Pilots Association, said in prepared remarks. “This is no way to run a railroad, and it’s certainly no way to operate the world’s safest air transportation system.” At the same time, wireless companies AT&T and Verizon Communications that spent about $80b for the rights to the new C-band airwaves, have had to hold off on activating hundreds of cell towers near airport runways as the FAA assesses the potential for interference on aviation equipment. “The truth of the matter is that both of our industries have been thrust into this avoidable economic calamity by a government process that failed,” Nicholas Calio, president of the Airlines for America trade group, said in prepared testimony.<br/>