Fifteen airports to get new runway safety System

Fifteen airports to get new runway safety System
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is going to install a new warning system at the fifteen largest airports of the nation. The new software system will prevent airplane collisions on the runway, the biggest problem in aviation safety.

The new system called 'Airport Surface Detection Equipment, Model X, or ASDE-X' will enable air traffic controllers to see on a screen, the movement of aircrafts and other vehicles around the airport. Donn Walker, a spokesperson of FAA expressed his confidence in the new system. “This will be a much more powerful set of eyes for controllers to see things that now can't be seen and to identify specifically what they are,” said Walker.

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Authorities at the National Air Traffic Controllers Association believe that the new system would enhance aviation safety. The ground radar system that is used at present to warn about aircraft collisions becomes ineffective in snowstorms. A case in point is the close shave between a cargo plane Express DC-8 and a passenger plane Israir Boeing on the runway of the Kennedy Airport on July 6.

The radar system was switched off because it was raining and the system gives false alarms during rains. The worst ever aircraft collision that happened on a runway was when two jumbo jets collided in 1977 killing 582 people. The rain does not affect the new system because the new system uses other sensors in addition to radar, while the present system depends only on radar.

The installation of the new system will start in January 2006 with the airport in Seattle. The other airports that would get the system include Baltimore, Washington (Reagan National and Dulles), Chicago (Midway and O'Hare), Houston (George Bush Intercontinental and Hobby), New York (LaGuardia), Newark, Detroit, Boston, and Minneapolis St.-Paul. The project cost for each airport will be $8.5 million.