Magenta Means "Be Extra Cautious"

In an effort to help bring additional awareness to the ongoing issue of runway incursions, Jeppesen tells ANN the company recently began the process of depicting runway incursion hot spots in a standardized magenta color on certain airport diagrams in the worldwide library.

Hot spots on paper charts will be converted from gray to the magenta depiction as they are revised, thus making them easier for pilots to identify. Jeppesen electronic charts have displayed hot spots in red for some time, but in the summer 2007 these too will be switched to the now Jeppesen standard magenta color. The affected electronic charts will be switched all at once.

Airport hot spots are designated at airports by aeronautical authorities around the world and are intended to heighten awareness of areas on an airport surface that could cause positional awareness confusion for pilots. Jeppesen depicts hot spots with the designator “HS1, HS2, HS3...” and a magenta circle around the region. Often hot spots exist at airports with many intersecting taxiways and runways, and/or complex ramp areas. 

“Runway incursions continue to be a safety concern for the aviation industry,” said Mark Van Tine, Jeppesen president and COO. “By standardizing the way runway incursion hot spots are depicted on our charts we aim to increase awareness among pilots by making the hot spots a prominent, easily identifiable chart feature. Jeppesen is also taking proactive steps to improve positional awareness on the ground through our digital Airport Moving Map application that provides pilots a very detailed rendering of airport surface features along with an aircraft position spotter.”

Jeppesen is a subsidiary of Boeing Commercial Aviation Services, a unit of Boeing Commercial Airplanes.

FMI: www.jeppesen.com