More Than A Dozen Incidents Since January 1

What's going on at Stockholm's Arlanda Airport? Swiss media report a total of 14 incidents since January 2003 involving near misses between taxiing aircraft, other aircraft on the ground and airport ground vehicles.

The majority of the incidents appear to stem from confusion surrounding a change-over to allow two-way traffic on taxi-ways and access roads inside the airport grounds. A spokesman for the airport admitted that while the changeover happened a year ago, many of the signs directing aircraft and ground vehicles have not yet been updated - due to the airport´s ongoing cost-savings effort.

Pilots have reportedly demanded that the signage be completed immediately and urged that the airport authorities learn something from the fatal crash of an SAS airliner at Italy’s Linate Airport in 2001. There, they said, similar lapses in ground control at the airport led to a collision of two aircraft on the ground, in which 118 people were killed.

A statement from Arlanda Airport says the new ground control system has been delayed and won't be operational until the end of March.

(Thanks to ANN Contributing Correspondent Matthew French In Turku, Finland)

FMI: www.lfv.se/eng/index.asp