FAA to improve safety at airport

Two safety systems being installed at McCarran International Airport should help reduce the possibility of planes colliding on the ground and wind shear affecting takeoffs and landings.

Federal Aviation Administration spokesman John Claves said a terminal Doppler radar to detect wind shear will be up and running within 30 days. A ground surveillance system used to alert tower controllers to plane positions on the runways will be installed within 90 days.

"Major improvements are right around the corner," Claves said.

McCarran, the nation's 15th busiest airport in terms of traffic, is receiving its upgrades at the same time 25 smaller airports nationwide are getting their first ground runway safety systems.

The FAA announced Monday it will install a system called ASDE-X at some of the smaller airports nationwide including Reno-Tahoe International Airport and Burbank, Ontario and Orange County airports in California.

McCarran is receiving an ASDE-3 radar in use at the busiest airports. Those 34 airports, including McCarran are scheduled to be upgraded by 2002 to a more complex system that will signal controllers to possible collisions in addition to the locations of planes on the ground.

Claves said the ASDE-3 radar is designed for use at airports with higher traffic. The ASDE-X system announced for 25 airports Monday could be installed by the end of the year.

Hilarie Grey, a McCarran spokeswoman, said the ASDE-3 radar is essentially "an alarm system for air traffic controllers."

In 1999 McCarran had five incidents classified as runway incursions. Although planes did not hit on the ground, they came close enough to each other or to other equipment that the case was classified an incursion, Grey said.

Two of those cases involved international charter planes unfamiliar with McCarran's ground regulations. The other three cases involved smaller, general aviation planes.

Although five cases were reported in 1999, Grey said none was serious. She also noted that McCarran has 800 takeoffs and landings daily.

Reno-Tahoe Airport spokesman Adam Mayberry said the ASDX-E equipment will help reduce the threat of potential collisions on the ground by telling traffic controllers where planes and vehicles are at night and in bad weather when visibility is limited.

"It's another tool for air traffic controllers to use to increase the measure of safety," said Mayberry, who didn't expect the system to be installed until late this year or next year.

FAA Administrator Jane Garvey announced the decision to purchase the equipment at the opening of a three-day airport safety conference in Washington.

Garvey said the 25 airports that will get ASDE-X were selected through a safety risk assessment conducted by the FAA and Massachusetts Institute of Technology, which focused on potential accidents and fatalities.

The number and rate of close calls on runways increased during most of the last decade before dropping slightly last year. However, the number of incidents jumped 27 percent in the first five months of this year compared with the corresponding period in 1999.

The runway safety summit is serving as a forum to discuss results of a series of regional runway safety meetings held earlier this year by the FAA.

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