Enhancing Airport Safety with Advanced Technology

airports are complex places planes taxi 2o and from runways and service Vehicles move between aircraft and Gates flights take off and land the choreography is a lot to keep track of air traffic controllers use radar and GPS to track aircraft in the sky and they have surface safety tools to track movement on the ground the FAA is fast-tracking installations of three surface safety tools at airports across the National Air space system approach Runway verification Runway incursion devices and the surface awareness initiative system to improve safety and make it easier for air traffic controllers to manage it all if an inbound aircraft is headed toward the wrong surface like a closed Runway a taxi way or even if the pilot is approaching the wrong airport the approach Runway verification tool gives controllers Visual and audible alerts wrong cice wrong cice when controllers can't see all Sur surfes of the airport from the tower the surface awareness initiative system displays a map with the real-time location of every aircraft in vehicle on Airport surfaces in all weather conditions and if a Runway is unavailable or closed controllers can use the runway incursion device to give them Audible and visual reminders of which runways are open or occupied before they clear an aircraft to take off or land check Runway check Runway by improving situational awareness these Advanced tools help controllers keep our national airspace system safe and running smoothly for everyone