Medevac Helicopter Flights Could Be Grounded by New 5G Rollout

  • Aviation groups girding for severe impacts starting Jan. 19
  • Despite compromise last week, flight limits still likely

View from a hospital helicopter flight iin Aurora, Colorado.

Photographer: Andy Cross/Denver Post/Getty Images
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The critically ill newborn baby was whisked by helicopter Saturday from rural Silverton, Oregon, to a children’s hospital in Portland, the kind of life-saving transport Life Flight Network makes thousands of times a year.

But starting Jan. 19, when new 5G wireless service kicks off across the country, such routine air-ambulance missions may no longer be permitted.