Ham Radio Enthusiasts Land U.S. Airlines With $8 Million Bill to Fix Faulty Equipment On Boeing 787s

Ham radio enthusiasts could be partly responsible for landing U.S. airlines with an $8 million bill to fix faulty equipment on Boeing 787 Dreamliner airplanes after it was discovered that simple radio signals can knock out a faulty transponder on the popular widebody plane used by American, United, and Alaska Airlines.

The issue came to light after the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) reported “multiple instances of loss of transponder for airplanes entering airspace in the presence of CW interference.”

CW interference refers to continuous-wave radio signals like Morse code, military transmitters, and even amateur ham radio signals, which have been found to interfere with the transponder on some Boeing 787s.

When Dreamliners fitted with this faulty transponder fly through areas where continuous-wave radio signals are present, there is a risk that the Mode S transponder function doesn’t ‘reply’ to radar interrogations.

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