Continental Approved for RNP Approaches to Newark's Runway 29

The FAA has approved the use of RNP (required navigation performance) approaches by Continental Airlines to Newark Liberty's Runway 29 - the same runway to which a Continental B-737 crew mistakenly landed on an adjacent parallel taxiway in October.

Continental had been pursuing approval for the GPS-based RNP approach to this non-primary runway before the Oct. 28 incident, according to FAA spokesman Jim Peters.

Newark flights normally use its two primary runways, 22L/4R and 22R/4L, which while capable of GPS/RNP approaches, are also served by ILS (instrument landing systems).

Before this RNP procedure, aircraft landing on Runway 29 have needed to make circling visual approaches, without in-cockpit navigational lateral or vertical precision guidance, over Newark's harbor area.

The National Transportation Safety Board is still investigating the taxiway-landing incident, and neither Continental nor the FAA has said that RNP procedures would have prevented the Continental crew from making the landing error. 12-26-2006.

Editor's note: This story, posted on 12-26-2006, contains RNP language that is misleading in its implications.  We have changed it, and posted a revised version, to provide clarification and amplification.)  12-27-2006.

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