More Runway Mishaps
Why aren't runways getting safer?
AP Photo
Several near-disasters at U.S. airports in recent weeks have put the spotlight back on runway safety (where it should have been all along). The most recent close call, at Allentown, Pennsylvania, involved a 60-passenger United Express flight, which had to swerve at 140 mph to avoid hitting a small plane on the same runway. The two planes reportedly missed each other by 10 feet. In another incident over the summer, a SkyWest commuter plane came within 15 feet of smashing into a prop plane at an airport in Fresno, California.
Since the beginning of the year, several jets carrying hundreds of people have been involved in runway incursions at major airports, such as when a Southwest 737 had to lift off precipitately from a San Diego runway to avoid hitting a private jet in its way. In fact, according to government investigators, the rate of these runway mishaps is up this year, despite highly publicized efforts by the FAA to raise awareness of the threat.
As Condé Nast Traveler reported last summer, a runway catastrophe is the number one nightmare of safety watchdogs. The potential for loss of life is great: A head-on crash of two planes going more than 100 mph wouldn't leave many survivors. The world's worst air crash remains the 1977 collision of two wide-body jets (operated by Pan Am and KLM) at a fogged-in airport in Tenerife.
But that was more than 30 years ago. Why aren't runways a lot safer now? According to the Government Accountability Office, which recently testified before a House subcommittee investigating the rash of runway mishaps, most of these incidents are caused by human error. Controllers have complained about understaffing and pilots about fatigue, and both groups cite a lack of advanced technology that would help protect against human error. (That's reality: Human beings are going to make mistakes from time to time.)
An obvious and not very sophisticated fix? Traffic lights on runways to warn pilots not to enter an occupied lane have been slow in arriving. The FAA, for its part, says it's pushing the fixes as fast as it can amid budgetary constraints. For instance, the group just announced that this fall it's rolling out a new runway safety lighting system, starting with Dallas Fort Worth. The bottom line, though: Air travel is down slightly this year, which should lead to a drop in these close calls, not a rise.
Further reading:
* Summer Air Traffic Woes Redux
* Close Calls Lead to Safety Upgrades
* On the Fly: The Daily Traveler's Barbara S. Peterson on the airline industry
RSS Feeds
Comments