ALPA Warns Congress About LightSquared Use In a letter sent to the U.S.
House Aviation Subcommittee on Wednesday, ALPA declared adamant opposition to a
private company’s bid to expand its broadband communications services in a way
that would jeopardize the global positioning system (GPS) and threaten the
tremendous contribution that the satellite-based navigation system makes to
ensuring efficient and safe airline operations.
“Over more than two decades, the invaluable navigation information available
through GPS has enabled air transportation to take an enormous leap forward in
safety and efficiency,” said ALPA president Capt. Lee Moak. The union
president sent the
letter to House Aviation Subcommittee Chairman Tom Petri
(R-WI) in preparation for the subcommittee’s hearing titled “GPS Reliability: A
Review of Aviation Industry Performance, Safety Issues, and Avoiding Potential
New and Costly Government Burdens,” which was held June 23.
Since 1983, when GPS became available for civilian use, the system has
evolved to become an indispensible tool for aircraft navigation, all-weather
approaches and landings, surveillance, maintaining separation between aircraft,
and pilot situational awareness. GPS signals are low-power by design to allow
them to be based on satellites, but this low-energy environment also makes them
susceptible to interference from other radio transmissions. For this reason,
only low-powered, satellite-based signals have historically been permitted in
the radio frequencies that are closest to GPS bandwidth.
In dramatic contrast to this safety-based approach, LightSquared, a privately
held broadband provider, proposes to deploy 40,000 high-powered, ground-based
transmitters in the radio frequency spectrum that is directly adjacent to GPS
bandwidth. Rigorous industry and government testing demonstrates that, if the
proposal were to go forward, GPS would be inaccessible over large regions of the
United States at normal operational altitudes for airliners. As a result,
airline pilots would lose a fundamental navigation tool that is particularly
beneficial in mountainous terrain, remote areas, and bad weather.
“In addition to safety and efficiency concerns, any
proposal that compromises GPS as a crucial tool airline pilots use to provide
safe and efficient air transportation in the United States also jeopardizes the
enormous contribution that the airline industry makes to the U.S. economy and
the tens of thousands of jobs it supports,” continued Capt. Moak.
Along with immediate operational issues, jeopardizing GPS would also
seriously affect existing efforts to modernize the U.S. air traffic control
system. ALPA strongly supports airspace modernization through NextGen and its
potential to enhance safety, increase capacity and efficiency, and protect the
environment. The FAA has already invested more than a billion dollars in
GPS-based technology that is designed to replace radar-based surveillance of
aircraft, and as NextGen continues to mature, GPS will become increasingly
important.
“The safety and efficiency of aviation operations today already depend on the
extremely accurate navigation information provided by GPS,” concluded Capt. Moak.
“ALPA applauds the U.S. House Aviation Subcommittee for holding a hearing on
this issue and underscoring the unmatched benefit that GPS provides to air
transportation. The LightSquared proposal must not be approved or deployed
unless we have clear evidence that the GPS system relied on by millions for safe
and efficient air travel is fully protected.”
Click here to learn
about the Coalition to Save Our GPS, an advocacy group that includes ALPA and
other industry stakeholders. |