In one of her first acts as chairman of the NTSB, Ellen Engleman vowed to take a fresh look at the Board’s safety advocacy programs, including its “Most Wanted” safety improvements.
ASDE-X
October 8, 2007 - 6:30am
The FAA has revised the Houston Class B airspace to contain the operations of jetliners to the new runways recently activated at George Bush Intercontinental Airport and Hobby Airport. The revisions, which involve expanding the lateral limits of areas B, C and D, go into effect on October 30. To help general aviation navigate the airspace, the FAA developed eight waypoints for the Houston terminal area.
October 1, 2007 - 10:47am
Runways at U.S. airports are getting safer, according to a recent FAA report. The agency said the number of incursions dropped 20 percent over a four-year period, to 324 last year, of which 32 were characterized as “high risk.” The number of “high-risk” incidents has dropped 50 percent since 2000, the report shows.
September 26, 2007 - 12:01pm
Honeywell and Sensis demonstrated in August a concept of providing automated, individual voice warnings to pilots about to fall prey to a runway incursion accident. Unlike the current procedure, the concept technology issues the warning to the pilots at the same time as the air traffic controllers.
September 19, 2007 - 1:37pm
Blue skies over the Atlantic may look a little greener over the next few years as the U.S. and European Union member states work together to reduce aviation’s environmental impact.
August 30, 2007 - 12:29pm
AIN this week participated in a demonstration of new technology aimed at preventing runway incursions, where Honeywell’s airborne TCAS units were linked with Sensis’ ASDE-X airport surface detection radar and its associated multilateration safety logic system. The prototype system was demonstrated in two simulated incursions at the Syracuse, N.Y. airport on Tuesday.
August 27, 2007 - 10:41am
The head of the 14,000-member air traffic controllers union said last month that the FAA is trumpeting the Next Generation Air Transportation System (NextGen) to mask poor morale and severe staffing shortages among its controller workforce.
July 6, 2007 - 6:01am
In a report released in late May, the Transportation Department’s Office of the Inspector General (OIG) said the FAA has made “significant progress” in reducing runway incursions compared to five years ago. But it cautioned that the serious risks associated with runway incursions underscore the need for maintaining vigilant oversight and a proactive approach to preventing severe accidents.
July 2, 2007 - 12:05pm
NTSB chairman Mark Rosenker told the House aviation subcommittee last month that his agency is disappointed in the FAA’s response to five of the six aviation items on the Safety Board’s Most Wanted List of safety improvements.
April 4, 2007 - 12:11pm
NTSB acting chairman Mark Rosenker said the FAA’s airport movement area safety system (AMASS) is not adequate to prevent serious runway collisions. Citing several recent near-collisions at Boston and New York airports where AMASS allegedly did not perform, Rosenker noted that the situations were instead resolved by flight crew actions sometimes bordering on the heroic–and luck.
