FAA Advancing Several Runway Safety Initiatives with Industry

In a March 25 speech to invited industry representatives in Washington, D.C., FAA Acting Administrator Robert A. Sturgell announced that the agency is considering a public-private partnership that would make available up to $5 million to enter into cost-sharing, cooperative agreements with industry to "better analyze the benefits of current cockpit runway safety technologies."

Mr. Sturgell said the plan is currently in "formative stages... but the aim is for the operators and manufacturers to outline what they would do with the funds to improve runway safety through the installation of technologies like cockpit moving map displays, the runway advisory warning system, ADS-B [automatic dependent surveillance-broadcast], and others.... The data that we glean from these technologies will help us better target safety trends and human factors issues to give us the big picture that we simply don't have yet."

He said the agency is tentatively focusing on the New York-Florida corridor since that's where our congestion and NextGen activities are primarily focused as well, and added that more information would be forthcoming later this summer.

More Emphasis on Smaller Airports

Repeating previous comments, Mr. Sturgell said, "We are looking into ways to bring affordable ground surveillance radar systems to small and medium airports. These are places where ground monitoring systems like ASDE-X [airport surface detection equipment - model x], which can cost more than $20 million, might not prove to be a sound financial move."

Referencing the current testing of two low-cost surface surveillance systems being tested at Spokane, Mr. Sturgell said, "The FAA has recently begun to identify other commercially available, low-cost systems that might fit the bill, and to see where they could be installed and tested. We've just completed a market survey to identify potential industry partners, and eight companies have stepped forward.... We expect to award contracts for the pilot project this fiscal year.  Additionally, we plan to have some of these products on the ground and under evaluation at about six airports in fiscal 2009.  These systems will directly benefit the controller workforce with increased situational awareness."

Future for Runway Status Lights

Using red lights embedded in the pavement to warn pilots when to hold can "significantly boost runway safety without reducing capacity or adding to controller workload," Mr. Sturgell said.  And the reasoning behind them is simple: "Drivers have stop lights to guide them. Why not pilots?"

Noting the airports at Dallas-Fort Worth and San Diego already have the lights, and that Los Angeles will get them next, Mr. Sturgell said the agency would select the fourth airport soon. "It's our hope that by 2011, at least 20 airports will have them," he said. Toward that end, Mr. Sturgell said the agency is inviting companies to present proposals for a national rollout of these systems, and would be considering a contract this summer.

Human Factors

Finally, acknowledging that technology isn't the only answer, Mr. Sturgell noted, "We also must focus on the human factor. One of those factors that sometimes surfaces is fatigue. Tired people are more apt to make mistakes.... Whether it's fatigued pilots, controllers, mechanics, or anyone else, we want to work with the industry to discuss the problem and find possible solutions."

To that end, the FAA is organizing a meeting in Washington for June 17-19, where a number of experts will discuss the latest scientific evidence and best practices regarding this issue.  04-03-2008.

Click here to become a registered Flt Tech Online subscriber and receive headlines delivered to your e-mail each week

Click here to go back to the headlines