The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has issued an airworthiness notification regarding the 5G network deployment and the Boeing 787 aircraft family.
According to the FAA, in the airworthiness notification released January 14, 2022, operators of Boeing 787s are required to take additional precautions when landing on wet or snowy runways at airports where 5G C-band service is deployed.
“The FAA determined anomalies on Boeing Model 787-8, 787-9, and 787-10 airplanes due to 5G C-Band interference which may affect multiple airplane systems using radio altimeter data, regardless of the approach type or weather,” the FAA airworthiness notification said.
“These anomalies may not be evident until the airplane is at low altitude during approach. Impacted systems include, but are not limited to: autopilot flight director system; autothrottle system; engines; thrust reversers; flight controls; flight instruments; traffic alert and collision avoidance system (TCAS); ground proximity warning system (GPWS); and configuration warnings.”
Further, the notification added: “During landing, this interference could prevent proper transition from AIR to GROUND mode, which may have multiple effects. As a result, lack of thrust reverser and speedbrake deployment and increased idle thrust may occur; and brakes may be the only means to slow the airplane. Therefore, the presence of 5G C-Band interference can result in degraded deceleration performance, increased landing distance, and runway excursion.”
The notification is for all Boeing 787-8, 787-9, and 787-10 airplanes.
On January 16, 2022, the FAA announced that it had cleared about 45% of the commercial fleet in the US to perform low-visibility landings at many of the airports where 5G C-band will be deployed on January 19, 2022.
The airplane models approved by the FAA included some Boeing 737, 747, 757, 767, MD-10/-11 and Airbus A310, A319, A320, A321, A330 and A350 models. The FAA expects to issue more approvals in the days to come.
