AP: 3 L.A.-area airports have worst runway safety records in U.S.

[question everything]

Thursday, November 24, 2005

3 L.A.-area airports have worst runway safety records in U.S.

Federal officials worry about situation at bustling LAX, where commercial jets have come close to crashing at least twice since 1999.
By Ian Gregor
The Associated Press

Los Angeles International Airport and two others nearby have the worst runway safety records among the nation's busiest airports in recent years, a review of federal aviation data shows.

Federal officials are most concerned by the situation at bustling LAX, where commercial jets have come perilously close to crashing at least twice since 1999, the first year of data reviewed by The Associated Press.

The problem persists because, despite millions spent to reduce violations known as runway incursions, LAX's airfield has built-in flaws: It's too tightly packed and arriving aircraft must cross runways used for takeoffs.

Nationwide, the number of incursions has dropped about 20 percent from its 2001 peak. Airports in Boston, Philadelphia and Newark had unusually high numbers of incursions in fiscal year 2005; those in Denver, San Francisco and New York's La Guardia had none, according to federal records.

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Find this article at:
http://www.dailybreeze.com/news/articles/2013987.html

[MercutioATC]

1. It's a technology issue...the FAA won't deploy it.

LAX (and a lot of airports) use AMASS to track planes on the ground. Unfortunately, it has to be turned off when it rains because it has the annoying tendency to mistake raindrops for airplanes.

A better system exists, but the FAA keeps pushing and scaling back the deployment:

http://www.natca.org/flyussafe/fact-ASDEX.asp

Wanna do something about it (and air safety in general)?

http://www.natca.org/flyussafe/