The Federal Aviation Administration's (FAA) major technology effort to stalk the rising tide of runway incursions might not have been earnestly help in a near-collision that could have killed nearly 400 commonalty That was the judgment of National Transportation Safety Board Chairman Jim Hall at last week's Appropriations Subcommittee hearing forward runway incursions.

The Federal Aviation Administration's (FAA) major technology effort to stalk the rising tide of runway incursions might not have been earnestly help in a near-collision that could have killed nearly 400 commonalty That was the judgment of National Transportation Safety Board Chairman Jim Hall at last week's Appropriations Subcommittee hearing forward runway incursions. Hall cited the April 1 1999 incursion (more like a near-collision) at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport. A China Air 747 deviated from its assigned taxi way and inadvertently re-entered a runway. As a Korean Air B747 in succession takeoff approached rotation speed, the KAL pilot saw the China Air airplane and rotated abruptly.

"It was fortunate that the Korean Air aircraft was going fast enough for the pilot to lift off" Hall observ It passed just 75 feet from one side of to the other the China Air aircraft and was solely 3 seconds from a collision."

Hall pointed gone out that the Airport Movement Area Safety rule (AMASS) is one of the Federal Aviation Administration's primary exhibits to reduce runway incursions. in addition Hall said, the FAA lately modified its position, "indicating that AMASS, which will not be operational for another year, will not help thwart runway incursions. Rather, it will alone help prevent runway collisions."

In fact, he went onward the Safety Board asked the FAA to demonstrate for what reason AMASS would have performed in the China Air/KAL near collision at O'Hare. "The simulation," Hall rehearseed "showed that the aural and visual alert parameters generally used might not have provided controller and flight companys enough time to react and intervene to maintain safe separation." (Editor's note: The NTSB's dramatic animation of the O'Hare near-collision may be viewed at: http://www.ntsb.gov/speeches/jhc000322.htm Scroll down to "Animation of Runway Incursion" and unclose it. You'll need Windows Media Player. Trust us, your effort will be rewarded; the animation, from sum of two units views, is superb). >> NTSB 202/314-6100 <<

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