Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) wants to introduce a new study to review the safety of the airport's northern runways.

The decision comes in the wake of a Government Accountability Office (GAO) report, issued earlier this month, which stated that LAX has seen the greatest number of on-ground near misses of any major US airport since 2001.

A study in the safety of the two parallel runways, to be carried out by NASA's Ames Research Center, was ordered by LAX in summer 2006 but that has not yet begun due to delays at NASA.

Officials Order Separate Review

The airport's officials say this is unacceptable, and that the GAO report shows investigations into the safety of the runways need to be carried out more urgently.

They have advised the Airport's commission to order a separate review into the northern runways, without waiting for the NASA study to begin.

LAX executive director, Gina Marie Lindsey, said: "I don't think we have time to waste. Every piece of information we get indicates there's a problem there that needs to be fixed."

Alan Rothenberg, the President of the LAX Airport Commission, concurred. He said: "Enough is enough. We're going to really push hard with staff and our lawyers to find some way to make things move faster."

According to Ms Lindsey, the new study will examine different ways to improve the safety of the runways and evaluate their potential effect. Measures set to be investigated include widening the distance between the two runways, moving the northernmost runway further away and re-designing the taxiway layout around the runways.

The study is expected to take two years to complete.

Improvements to ATC

City of Los Angeles Councilman Bill Rosendahl, who represents the area surrounding LAX, agreed that more urgent action was required to look into the runways' safety but said he NASA should still carry out their study.

He also drew attention to complaints from LAX air traffic controllers, who claim they are overworked and the airport's tower under-staffed.

Rosendahl argued that an easy solution to improving runway safety was to add more controllers at LAX.

Source - Airport International's US Correspondent

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