Former airline pilot and aviation history expert Dan Bubb explained to KNX News In Depth how 5G might be why your summer flights do not go as planned.
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Budd said because many commercial aircraft have pilots sitting high in the cockpit, they rely on what's called a "radio altimeter" to help them time their landing.
"So 5G has the potential to interfere with that [altimiter], and that can be very problematic, particularly when you have planes landing in low visibility conditions, " Budd said.
While there are many planes already in rotation with technology that shields the radio from 5G signal, Budd says there are still about 20% that are vulnerable.
You might think an upgrade like this would be costly, causing airlines to drag their feet, but Budd says it's relatively inexpensive, just time-consuming, which ultimately does cost the airlines money.
When it comes to placing blame for why after all this lead time, it seems there is a scramble to get things settled, Budd says he believes "airlines were trying to hold out as long as they could, to make money before they finally had to acquiesce and install this new equipment."
Budd also says that to avoid flight delays related to 5G, the FAA could go back to prohibiting phone companies from using power boosts near airports until every aircraft is equipped to deal with it, but that has yet to happen.
For now, Budd says the best thing passengers can do is turn their phone off or set it to airplane mode and hope that the airlines and phone companies work together more effectively in the future.
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