The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) proposed a new airworthiness directive (AD) Wednesday that would give operators of certain airplanes until February 2024 to upgrade their radio altimeters if those airplanes are to be flown around areas where 5G C-Band radio transmissions could cause interference.
The requirement would apply to airplanes operated under U.S. Federal Aviation Regulations Part 121 and would supersede a 2021 AD that applied to all transport and commuter airplanes with radio altimeters; that AD prohibited them from conducting some operations that required radio altimeter data.
The FAA said in its notice of proposed rule-making (NPRM), published in Wednesday’s Federal Register, that since the issuance of that AD, it had determined a need for additional limitations “due to the continued depl…
