We don't want this on the runway.
AP Photo

by Barbara S. Peterson

Perhaps it is just a coincidence that after another close call at Kennedy International Airport--the second in less than a week--the Federal Aviation Administration has rolled out one of the most ambitious airline safety projects in recent memory. Four hundred million dollars have been committed to upgrade runway safety lighting at 20 major airports around the country, including, naturally, JFK.

In the most recent incident at the New York airfield, which occurred last Friday, a Delta 767 and a Comair regional jet came within a half mile of each other horizontally, and 600 feet vertically (far closer than is allowed by FAA rules, which mandate gaps of three to five miles horizontally and 1,000 feet vertically). As the two events were very similar--they took place on the same runway, with one plane taking off and the other executing a "go around"--the FAA said it would change the way planes take off and land on those particular airstrips.

With runway safety on the front burner, the FAA is accelerating its plans to expand the safety lighting system, which we wrote about in our June issue. While it costs $20 million per airport to install, it is a fairly low-tech approach, using a series of ground lights (much like traffic lights) to signal to pilots whether or not it is safe to enter a runway. In fact, the system has already been in use at Dallas Fort Worth, where it has reportedly prevented dozens of airport fender-benders. San Diego's airport has a similar system, but it doesn't cover all situations--and it didn't activate in the case of a near-collision between a Southwest plane and a private jet during an incident last January. But as safety experts continue to warn of the potential for runway disasters, the nation's busiest airfields have been demanding they get the new system ahead of schedule. Other airports in line to get the new lights over the next three years include Chicago O'Hare, Atlanta Hartsfield, Boston Logan, Los Angeles International, Newark, LaGuardia, Washington Dulles, and airports in Charlotte, Denver, Detroit, Fort Lauderdale, Las Vegas, and Minneapolis.