e-Scapes

Kind of scary that this wasn't always in place. You figure if we've got traffic lights on small town main streets, you'd think we'd have them a mega airports. Air travel is statistically very safe, that fact can't be ignored. But the choreography on the ground and in the skies around airports has long seemed like organized chaos at best to me. You sit there and wonder how they keep it all straight...then purge it from your brain because you don't really want to know how much luck is involved.

Controllers have been trained very extensively in the sequencing process at airports for years. Just listen to LiveATC.net, particularly the JFK Ground frequency. I do agree, however, that such a primitive device could have been implemented years ago.

I love the way non-pilot types (the author of this story) refer to a standard "go-around' procedure as "taking a second crack at landing". And not that I'm against the proposed installation of lights a intersections, how would that have prevented this incident? This incident was NOT a runway incursion.

I think I'll follow this one to read all of the uninformed comments.

This seems like a sensible, cost effective, and functional way to prevent dangerous runway incursions.

Personally, I think the ideal complement would be a cockpit computer system which would give pilots clerance to taxi/take off/land. This way, Pilots could get a good idea of what traffic is around them while having three seperate ways to confirm clerance (runway traffic lights, ATC radio clerance, and the computer system)

This seems like a sensible, cost effective, and functional way to prevent dangerous runway incursions.

Personally, I think the ideal complement would be a cockpit computer system which would give pilots clerance to taxi/take off/land. This way, Pilots could get a good idea of what traffic is around them while having three seperate ways to confirm clerance (runway traffic lights, ATC radio clerance, and the computer system)

They have had them in London's Heathrow for years,talk about being behind the curve!!!

Ummn that all sounds great with the cockpit computer system but I think you forgot the part about it being cost effective.

Comment to Long-T regarding "go-around procedures" That's fine if you are flying a small plane and can remain in the pattern. However commercial airline pilots use "missed approach procedures".... In a sense, yes they would get a second crack at landing.

I really don't think the idea is going to make a difference.

I'm a bit ignorant when it comes to Air Traffic Control, but I would think TRAFFIC lights are best left on the street? Perhaps more support for our Air Traffic Controllers? Maybe? Do you think this is possible? Just wondering.

Frazier; I stand corrected; Standard "missed approach procedures" not standard "go around". The rest of my comment applies...

These lights do not work on the streets why would they work at the airport???

You should investigate the departure of seasoned atc employees. When I went to work in the early eighties the controllers were not retiring until 35 or 40 yrs service. Why are they ALL leaving at 20 yrs? Maybe the FAA should be held accountable for employee misuse or neglect. We went through so many morale booster programs that I could not begin to recall them all, however they were all about the same thing. The FAA wants employee loyalty without rewards. Towards the end of the employee incentive programs the only ones receiving cash awards were in DC. That in itself should raise an eyebrow. Don't get excited, noone gets incentives anymore (that is outside of wooing them to commit financial suicide). Check it out.

FFA needs to train (should have already trained) many people to be Air Traffic controllers; this is the common sense way to solve this problem. Nothing will work without a well trained person to make second s life saving judgement calls!!!!

The Bobby Sturgell FAA: (A) continues to subject Americans to a steady stream of aircraft near-misses and near-disasters in epic numbers since Bobby Sturgell took over as Acting FAA Administrator almost a year ago; (B) tells us that it is OK for an agency and airlines working together to enlist publicists to tell Americans that air travel was never safer whilst planes are falling apart in un-inspected disrepair, aviation inspectors are criminally threatened by FAA management, and passengers are continually put in harm’s way; (C) is a revival of the Oberstar-decried, Schiavo-decried Tombstone Agency, the notion that ‘If the plane doesn't crash, we're doing great’; the notion that a federal agency is not required to anticipate and navigate around safety problems, but only react if there is a tombstone. The talent pool is deeper than this. There is more to leadership than wearing aviator glasses. We have an ugly aviation safety crisis on our hands. Let's wash our hands of it. Let’s wash our hands of Bobby Sturgell and his failed administration. The FAA’s cozy relationship with the airlines and the agency's abject failure to regulate must end NOW. We again ask all members of the United States Congress and American citizens to Just Say No to Bobby Sturgell.
Quiet Rockland
http://ejectsturgell.blogspot.com

Well, why didn't they thought of putting traffic lights on runways long ago?! They have these lights for trains, so why not airplanes? Least they would help pilots when they can take-off, etc. (rolleyes)