WASHINGTON-
The Federal Aviation Administration said Friday it plans to adopt new rules that would make technology used to prevent runway accidents more affordable for airlines.
The agency, responding to industry criticism about the high cost and complexity of certifying the technology, said the move would reduce the cost of installing global positioning systems used to navigate runways by roughly 90 percent, or $180,000 per device.
The FAA said the new policies for certifying the systems, which can be installed on most planes, should be in place by late April.
“Aviation is about to have a breakthrough application of a very familiar technology, something that could change how pilots safely navigate runways—the way GPS changed the way we drive cars,” said Marion Blakely, administrator of the FAA.
Originally, the devices were intended to be used while in flight and on the runway, but “the certification process has proven very difficult and very expensive for manufacturers,” Blakely said. Under the new rules, carriers will only be allowed to use the devices on the runway.
In 2006, there were 31 serious domestic runway accidents, compared with 53 in 2001, according to the FAA.
Denver International Airport has had two close calls this year, one involving a plane on the wrong runway and one involving a snowplow.
The navigation systems are expected to be available this year and are projected to cost around $20,000—cheap enough for air carriers to install them in large numbers, the FAA said. More sophisticated—and more expensive—in-flight systems are available on new planes.
John Hickey, director of aircraft certification at the FAA, identified potential makers of the navigation systems as Boeing Co. subsidiary Jeppesen Sanderson Inc. and ACSS, a joint venture of L-3 Communications Holdings Inc. and Thales SA., a French defense firm.
While the systems would show an airplane’s location on a runway, it would not be able to display other aircraft or issue warnings if one gets too close.
Earlier this year, a plane owned by UAL Corp.’s United Airlines came within 200 feet of a snowplow when landing at Denver International Airport. That incident came just weeks after a Frontier Airlines Holdings Inc. jet attempting to land in Denver came within 50 feet of a smaller charter plane that had inadvertently entered the runway.
