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Alaska Airlines installing technology to prevent runway crashes

Instead of runway awareness, I'd like to see management get a little negotiation or salary awareness. Just do the right thing for a change.

Quote:

From KING5, quoting WSJ:
SEATTLE - Safety experts say ground accidents are the greatest airline hazard, citing 24 serious near-collisions in the U.S. last year.

In the first safety move of its kind on passenger jets, Alaska Airlines has announced it will install technology aimed at preventing runway crashes.

Alaska Airlines is the first to provide this safety layer in the cockpit. It's called the Runway Awareness and Advisory System, or RAAS, designed to guide pilots through what seems routine on the ground, but can be very dangerous.

Just days ago, a runway incursion happened at Sea-Tac International Airport. An Airtran Boeing 737 had just landed at Sea-Tac from Baltimore when Northwest Flight 106 was departing for London. Airtran was supposed to hold its place, letting the Northwest Airbus take off. Instead, investigators say without clearance, the Airtran jet crossed in front, leaving the Northwest pilots barely enough space pull up.

An estimated 728 people have died of runway accidents between 1996 and 2007. Now, the first passenger airline will install Runway Awareness and Advisory System, which will guide pilots through the myriad of taxiways and make sure through verbal warnings that they have enough room to take off.

The Wall Street Journal reports Alaska Airlines has adopted four of the nine possible pilot warnings. Right now, makers Honeywell tell the Journal the system doesn't tell you if there is another plane on the runway, but technology companies are working on that.

Alaska Airlines plans to have the entire fleet of 112 of their 737s outfitted by the end of September.

I'm sorry. What did you say? You were covered by some soft female voice telling me something I couldn't understand. Was that cleared for takeoff?:confused:

This actually happened to me the other day on one of our RAAS aircraft. Just as Tower was telling us something (we assumed was "cleared for takeoff") the stupid thing is saying "On Runway One Six Left." Gee thanks, is that what the big 16L painted on the runway means? We had to confirm our takeoff clearance after the thing finally shut up, all the while stepping on Tower trying to confirm that that we received the takeoff clearance. What a goat rope!

I can see it being useful in ORD on a 300RVR day though.

Maybe it also intended to protect you from having a menzies running into you.

Couldn't they have invested in something a little more useful like an electronic flight bag? EFB's would eliminate 80 lbs of weight (saving fuel), reduce back injuries (reducing workmen's comp) and prevent runway incursions quietly by overlaying the aircraft's position on the jepp 10-9 page displayed on an MFD.

This technology would not have helped during the July 2nd incident at SEA. I'm just glad they used idle reverse and rolled all the way down to F. If they took H,J it could have been bad.

Bet the Comair guys in Lexington would have appreciated that "voice." Can't ask the Capt, though. He's dead.

Or how maybe the Chinese crew who took off on Taxiway K in ANC a couple years ago.

Runway incursions are the #1 problem.

You guys sound just like the gang who didn't want TCAS loading up their EFIS with "useless" info.

We've had RAAS installed in some of our a/c at Fedex for about a year. We also had a lot of problems with the original system being too loud and talking over radio transmissions, but the company disabled the system until they worked out the bugs.
It now works pretty nice- a good volume, gives you warning that you're approaching a runway in a timely manner, and won't drown out radio transmissions. Matches up well with our MD-11's and MD-10's EFB's - sorry, had to get that in.
The EFB's also took some getting used to, but I think 99% of our guys love the things now. Again, a number of bugs had to be worked out, and are still being worked on, but they can really improve your SA. When we get the moving map function up and running (the little airplane symbol moves across the selected airport diagram chart automatically), the SA improvement will really be good. Not to mention, not having to lug the 50+ lbs. of worldwide Jepps around, really make the EFB's worth the trouble of learning the Lufthansa Lido system that is installed on the EFB's, instead of Jepps.

Quote:

Originally Posted by hyperone (Post 459252)

The EFB's would definately be a nice addition and is probably the best way to improve SA. As far as the RAAS, it will take some time to get used to. It has been improved since the first installation a little over a year ago, but it is definately a work in progress. Mostly it is a distraction because of interruptions during busy radio transmission and checklist usage times.

EFB's with integration for chart overlay on MFD's would have been a better use of resources. I'm sure this was shot down though because of the side effect of making our job a little easier.