Buckle Up, Buttercup!

 

by Pa Rock

Traveling Skeptic

The airline industry is coming off of a couple of very hard years.  The pandemic kept people at home for over a year and sent the major carriers scurrying for government handouts in order to survive.  Then as people began traveling again, the pandemic started playing havoc with schedules as more and more airline employees began testing positive and staying away from their jobs.  For awhile thousands of flights were being cancelled daily.   Then came the winter snows and even more flights were cancelled.

And now the airline industry is facing down a new threat - the 5-G (fifth generation) wireless service that AT&T and Verizon plan on rolling out tomorrow.   Major airlines are calling for an "immediate intervention" by the government to delay or stop the rollout, or at least to prevent the use of the technology within two miles of airport runways.

The airlines are saying that the new service may interfere with the ability of technology onboard aircraft to judge altitude, and could possibly cause "massive disruptions" in service.  (If air traffic controllers, aircraft, and pilots are unsure of planes' altitudes near airports, it sounds like "massive disruptions in service" might be a euphemism for airplane crashes.)

At this point AT&T and Verizon appear determined to go ahead with tomorrow's initiation of the new service.  

Five-G probably won't impact this old hillbilly's ability to communicate.  I have a "smart" phone, a new one, in fact, but I only use it to check email - and make the occasional telephone call.   I have grandchildren who live on the West Coast, and I visit them when I can - and I like to occasionally explore new places - so I have been crammed onto quite a few airplanes in my lifetime.  But I don't like flying, and I know there are a few other less convenient options - and now I have one more reason to give those options serious consideration.

And one more reason not to fly.  

But for those who cannot or will not give up flying . . . buckle up, buttercup.  It may be a bumpy flight!