NY airports need technology to prevent collisions

NEW YORK (AP) _ The region's three major airports lack technology designed to prevent airplanes from colliding with each other, and it could be years before all of them have it, a lawmaker said Sunday.

LaGuardia, John F. Kennedy International and Newark (N.J.) Liberty International airports don't have the surface detection equipment technology that alerts air traffic controllers to potential collisions within 5 miles of an airport, including on runways, U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer said.

The airports remain at the bottom of the list to receive the new technology, and LaGuardia will be among the last airports to receive it in December 2010, said Schumer, D-N.Y. Kennedy was slated to receive the new system in August of 2008 and Newark in July 2009, he said.

Schumer's comments come three days after a plane taxied onto a runway where a plane was about to land at Newark Liberty. The Federal Aviation Administration is investigating that incident, called an incursion.

Also last week, a congressional report said there was "a high risk of a catastrophic runway collision occurring" in the country because of poor leadership, unreliable technology and overworked air traffic controllers.

Schumer called on FAA officials to expedite the installation of the collision technology, which he said was particularly helpful in bad weather and at night, at New York area airports.

"As one of the busiest areas in the country, we should be at the top of the list when new technology is developed to make us safer," Schumer said. "On the heels of this week's scathing report, Thursday's near miss at Newark shows the FAA must not continue to drag its feet."

An FAA spokesman said the schedule to install the technology was based on several factors including how busy an airport is and the complexity of an airport's runway and taxiway infrastructure and procedures. Some airports received the technology ahead of New York's airports while others will get it later, FAA spokesman Jim Peters said.

New York's three airports already have ground surveillance radar although it doesn't offer as much detail about an aircraft's whereabouts as the new technology, Peters said.

Near misses at New York area airports increased from six in 2003 to 13 in 2006, Schumer said.

Although the FAA decided in October 2003 that the new system was ready to be installed across the country, it is operating in 11 U.S. airports, Schumer said. Twenty-four more airports are scheduled to get it.

The lack of the technology combined with understaffed air traffic controller towers at the region's three major airports create "a perfect storm for an accident," Schumer said.

Source: newsday.com