new tonight. president biden praising verizon and at&t which owns cnn s parent company for their last-minute delay in launching 5g service near some airports. it is a temporary pause but it comes after u.s. airlines warned loudly and consistently that the rollout would lead to dire and catastrophic consequences. and there is still no long-term solution in sight. pete muntean is out front. reporter: major airlines call it the latest issue affecting your safety in the sky. they say new high-speed 5g cell service could cause errors in crucial information that pilots need to land. in a new letter to the biden administration, ten airlines, including delta, american, and united, insist that could lead to as many as a thousand flights diverted, delayed, or cancelled each day. a situation they call economic calamity. airlines say 5g signals can
good to have you in studio. nice to see you. good to see you. now to a technology crisis averted, which still has some lawmakers angry. today on capitol hill house members demanded answers about the botched rollout of high-speed 5g cell service which caused some disruptions at airports due to regulators fears 5 g signals might interfee with landing instruments. they grilled the faa administrator. pete muntean joins us from reagan national airport. did lawmakers find out who was responsible for this seemingly preventible, rather obvious screw-up? well, really a lot of finger pointing in this house hearing today. really two sides argued by lawmakers. one, that the fcc really did not understand the risks associated with this 5g rollout. and two, that the faa really did not voice its concerns about aviation safety early enough. it wasn t until the 11th hour of this rollout that those two industries really started working together and that the
dixon was just on the hill talking about the handling of the 5g cell service rollout because airlines had pretty serious safety concerns. he was nominated by president trump in 2019 and says this is all about family, nothing more. a note to faa employees he says after sometimes long and unavoidable periods it is time to devote my time and attention to them. it is time to go home. dickson has been lauded by people on capitol hill. now we will see who will fill his shoes. could it be captain chelsea sullenberger? it will be a pretty high-profile role given how big this has been for the faa in the last couple of years. well that would be
still promising more improvements on the dramatic shortages in the number of tests. omicron is still rippling through washington and many cities across the country. most states as well here. so a central challenge for this administration. once again, covid-19 really entering the third year of that challenge. so as the president begins 2022, again, many challenges on his agenda, his approval rating low. he s trying to fight through all of this in the new year. jeff zeleny, cnn, the white house. thanks, jeff. well, at&t and verizon have agreed to a u.s. government request to postpone wednesday s rollout of 5g cell service near airports. the delay comes after authorities said it would interfere with signals. the parent company says, quote, we know aviation safety and 5g can coexist, and we are confident further collaboration