The Transportation Safety Board is recommending that the layout of two runways at Canada’s busiest airport be changed to lessen the risk of collisions between aircraft.
The recommendation was one of four included in a report from the independent safety watchdog after its investigations into 27 separate runway incursions at Toronto Pearson International Airport between June 2012 and November 2017.
The TSB defines a runway incursion as an incident where an aircraft or ground vehicle “mistakenly occupies an active runway.” A worst-case scenario would be a direct collision between two planes as a result.
According to investigators, all of the Pearson incidents occurred between two “closely spaced parallel runways” at the south end of the airport grounds. The two runways are connected by several “rapid-exit taxiways” — small stretches of runway aircraft can use to move from one to the other.
The “south complex” at Toronto Pearson International Airport. Planes use the rapid-exit taxiways, shown here in red, to move between the parallel runways. Both runways are in use during peak hours at the airport. (Transportation Safety Board)
Both runways are used at the same time during peak hours at Pearson, which sees some 400,000 flights per year.
The problems arise when a plane has landed on the southmost runway and attempt to take one of the taxiways to the adjacent runway, the TSB says.
In its report, the TSB notes that the layout of the taxiways “are different from almost every other major airport in North America.”
This has resulted in confusion among flight crews and increased the risks of a major collision, the TSB says. The report cites design problems with the airfield and busy flight crews missing various cues.
“All 27 incursions examined involved flight crews who understood they needed to stop, and that they were approaching an active runway,” Kathy Fox, chairwoman of the board at a news conference in Richmond Hill, Ont.
“Despite all the visual cues, including lights, signage and paint markings, professional crews were not stopping in time as required, thereby risking a collision with another aircraft on the other runway.”
Fox said that in at least five instances, last-second interventions by air traffic controllers prevented potentially serious collisions between planes.
from Update Trend News http://bit.ly/2MKFMrT
0 Comments