The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has issued detailed guidelines for operators outlining potential problems when flying near 5G C-Band wireless broadband signals.
Safety Alert for Operators (SAFO) 21007, issued Dec. 23, also discusses the role to be played by notices to air missions (NOTAMs) in identifying geographic areas where specific radio altimeter operations are prohibited in the presence of 5G signals.
Radio altimeters, which measure an aircraft’s height above terrain, operate in the 4.2 to 4.4 GHz band while C-Band telecommunications systems use the 3.7 to 3.98 GHz band. The FAA and the aviation industry say that the slight separation of the two bands could result in interference with radio altimeter operations.
“[R]adio altimeters cannot be relied upon to perform their intended function if they experience interference,” the SAFO says, noting that,…
