Ground Radar Urged for Minneapolis-St. Paul Airport

The Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport lacks ground radar that can help keep planes apart in heavy rain and snowstorms. And that technology shortcoming became more of a problem with the opening of a third runway last month, the air traffic controllers' union laments.

On Wednesday, the union called on the Federal Aviation Administration to speed up deployment of a more advanced ground radar system at the nation's airports. Even in heavy storms, it would reliably provide warnings of impending runway collisions.

The FAA responded 90 minutes later by stating its intentions to build the systems at several major airports — including the Twin Cities — saying the union's actions prompted it to move ahead a planned announcement.

The current ground radar at the Twin Cities airport is often rendered useless in heavy storms, the union charges. That leaves the controllers to rely just on their eyes and communications with pilots to keep planes — and vehicles — separated on runways.

"The opportunities to have something go wrong have increased significantly," said Bruce Alexander, president of the local chapter of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association. "The solution is to deploy technology that allows us to 'see' planes (on the ground) all the time."

Alexander, who has been a traffic controller at the airport for about 12 years, says he's not aware of any runway collisions at the airport during that time.

But with the new runway opening, planes may cross one runway to get to another perhaps 400 to 500 times a day, he said. In the past, there might be 50 such crossings a day.

The FAA said the runway safety system the union wants is coming to Minneapolis-St. Paul and 14 other airports "soon." Four airports already have it.

But the FAA isn't saying precisely when the new system will be deployed here, though it expects to complete its national rollout by 2011.

Ground radar and other technology are just backups for controllers' eyes and ears, FAA spokeswoman Rebecca Trexler said.

"They are responsible for the safe separation of aircraft," she said. "The technology is a great backup in case of human error. But we rely primarily on the alertness of pilots, controllers and vehicle drivers on the runways."

Trexler noted the union is in contract talks with the FAA.

Alexander scoffed at the suggestion that could have something to do with the union's concerns.

"It's a safety issue," he said. "We can't negotiate it."

He welcomed the FAA announcement about the advanced ground radar systems. They cost about $3 million per airport, he said.

"It's great news," he said. "But how long do we have to wait for it? We feel we need it, and the flying public deserves it."

The New York Times contributed to this report.

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