FAA Reviews Landing and Take Off Distances
The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is to review the rules governing landing and take-off distances at US airports in poor weather.
The Agency is convening an Aviation Rulemaking Committee (ARC) to investigate the suitability of existing certification and operating regulations for landings and take-offs on runways affected by standing water, ice or snow.
Chicago Incident Prompts Decision
The decision to launch the ARC to look into the matter comes in the wake of the US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB)'s recommendation in October that a safety margin be built into the landing calculations made by flight crews. This recommendation was prompted by the findings of the NTSB's investigation into an incident at Chicago Midway Airport in December 2005 where a Southwest Boeing 737 over-ran the runway in wet conditions.
The NTSB's report into the over-run at Chicago concluded that a primary cause of the incident was the fact that Southwest's systems did not factor-in the current weather at the airport, which led to the pilots missing crucial information to calculate the landing distance required for the conditions.
Immediately following the incident, the FAA published a safety alert asking operators to voluntarily introduce a 15% safety margin. The NTSB subsequently reported that 27 out of 65 airlines had adopted the margin.
The FAA says the ARC will be responsible for establishing certification and operational requirements for take-off and landing operations on runways in bad weather. It will also assess landing distance requirements, including the minimum safety margins, as well as laying down common standards regarding the minima required for safe operations in poor conditions.
Source - Airport International's US Correspondent
