Fri, Jul 22, 2005
Rain Blamed For JFK Failure
That $90 million runway collision
avoidance system installed in 34 airports around the US has one big
drawback: It doesn't work in moderate- to heavy-rain.
So say air traffic controllers after an Airborne Express DC-8
almost collided with an Israir 767 on the runway at New York's big
airport earlier this month. The DC-8 was taking off when the Israir
plane blundered onto Runway 22R in violation of a hold order from
the tower.
"Somebody's crossing the runway," exclaimed the DC-8 pilot as he
was on his take-off roll, according to NATCA's Barrett Byrnes. He
was quoted by New York Newsday.
"Somebody's taking off!" shouted the Israir pilot into his
radio, according to Byrnes. Neither pilot heard the other, though,
because they were on different frequencies.
The FAA report on that incident says
the DC-8 cleared the 767 by a mere 75-feet.
Where was the anti-collision radar? Switched to stand-by, Byrnes
said, because in even moderate rain, it's terribly prone to false
alarms. At this point, Newsday reports, the FAA has no plans to
change or improve the system.
But even when it works, the NTSB is worried that it simply isn't
fast enough to avert a potential disaster. Safety board members
continue pushing the FAA to institute a runway collision avoidance
system that talks directly to pilots, instead of talking to
controllers who then talk to the pilots themselves. By the time
that whole process is complete, the NTSB warns, it might be too
late.
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