Air India Boeing 777 aircraft cleared to operate into US, airline begins flying stranded passengers – Times of India

MUMBAI: In a huge relief to over a thousand Air India US-bound passengers stranded for the last two days, the airline on Thursday said that it has received a go-ahead from Boeing to operate its Boeing 777 aircraft to the US. Three Air India flights have been scheduled to operate on Thursday to destinations such as New York, Chicago and San Francisco carrying these stranded passengers, over 700 of whom have been given hotel accommodation after Air India canceled its US flights scheduled in the early hours of Wednesday. The had to airline cancel three departures scheduled in the early hours of Thursday as well.
In the past 48 hours, Air India and airlines around the world had canceled, curtailed their US operations over safety concerns related to the 5G rollout in the US on January 19 (US time).
After Boeing gave a green signal to Air India to operate its Boeing 777 aircraft to the US, the first of the lot__ Air India Delhi-New York flight, that is__ left at 7.45 am on Thursday, said an Air India official. The airline had lined up other departures to Chicago and San Francisco as well. While the Chicago flight, AI-127 is now scheduled to depart at 1.20 pm, while the San Francisco flight AI-173 will depart at 3 pm, said the Air India official. “The flights would have departed in the morning itself, but passengers had to undergo Covid tests as their earlier tests expired,” said the airline official.
“The matter regarding Boeing 777 flying into the US has been sorted,” said the Air India official. The problem pertains to 5G services using frequencies in a radio spectrum called the C-band as these frequencies are close to those used by a radio altimeter installed onboard aircraft. Since a radio altimeter is the only sensor onboard an aircraft that gives accurate information of an aircraft’s height over the ground, any interference with its readings could be hazardous. While the US regulator, Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) had cleared a number of aircraft to operate into airports with 5G C-band transmission stations in the vicinity, Boeing wide-bodies such as Boeing 777 and Boeing 787 were till recently not given a go-ahead.
The US aviation regulator, the FAA recently issued a list of radio altimeter models (installed on Boeing aircraft) that were found to be “robust” enough against 5G C-band interference. Among these are the Boeing 777 and 787 aircraft, which are also the planes that Air India operates in the US. Boeing aircraft equipped with these permitted altimeters can continue low-visibility landings in the 5G C-Band deployment areas till January 31, said the FAA in a letter sent to Boeing, dated January 18. Altimeter manufacturers evaluated data from the wireless companies to determine how robust each (radio altimeter) model is, it said. “This work has shown some altimeters are reliable and accurate in the 5G areas, others must be retrofitted or replaced,” it said.
the FAA, banking on test data provided by Boeing which showed that certain radio altimeters installed on Boeing aircraft are robust enough to withstand 5G C-band waves had okayed the operations of Boeing aircraft into certain US airports. In a letter to Boeing, dated January 18, the Federal Aviation Administration said that the Boeing aircraft fitted with the said radio altimeters can carry out low-visibility landings into these airports.
The FAA has also issued a long list of airports to which aircraft equipped with these particular radio altimeters can operate even in low-visibility conditions. The list covers all the US airports that Air India operates to, except New York-JFK. “But if Air India’s Boeing 777 and Boeing 787 aircraft are not equipped with that particular model of radio altimeters then the airline’s US flights will continue to be hit till the time the altimeters are not retrofitted or replaced or some other solution is reached,” said a source.
Another respite for airlines came with the US president, Joe Biden, announcing that the communications service providers have agreed to delay 5G deployment around key US airports. Meanwhile, the US government will be working to find a solution that would allow 5G signals and aviation to safely co-exist, the White House said in a statement dated January 18.