LAX Radar Upgrades Are Delayed

Several radar upgrades that air traffic controllers say are essential to help identify potential collisions on the ground at Los Angeles International Airport are months behind schedule.

In one case, equipment that eliminates blind spots and false alarms that plague an existing collision-alert system will not be operational until 2009. Originally, the Federal Aviation Administration, the agency that operates the nation's complex air traffic network, slated the user-friendly system for installation this year.

In another, a system that would colorize airplanes on radar scopes to distinguish whether aircraft are approaching the correct runway has yet to be installed in the air traffic control tower because of software glitches.

News of the delays comes on the heels of two high-profile closecalls at LAX in the last four months. In each instance, a pilotinadvertently drove onto an active runway in front of a departingaircraft. On Sept. 30, two planes came so close to colliding that aSkyWest pilot -- who slammed on his brakes and came within 100 feetof a Gulfstream business jet -- can be heard hyperventilating ontapes of the cockpit conversation.

The new collision-alert equipment, known as Airport SurfaceDetection Equipment Model X, or ASDE-X, helps controllers avert closecalls on the ground by displaying a detailed picture of the3,600-acre airfield.

"The system is a lot cleaner, clearer picture than what we'relooking at right now," said Mike Foote, a controller in the LAX towerand a spokesman for the National Air Traffic Controllers Assn. "It'sa lot more reliable."

The existing ground radar system at LAX shows objects as blobs ona monochromatic screen and doesn't distinguish between a person, avehicle or an aircraft.

The advanced equipment identifies each airplane by its flightnumber and airline by picking up signals sent by radar and sensors onthe airfield and transponders in aircraft. Sensors eliminate blindspots that exist because the current radar system cannot see throughbuildings and other static objects.

Controllers at airports with ASDE-X say it has saved lives byhelping them pinpoint problems as they develop. At T.F. Green Airportin Warwick, R.I., controllers recently noticed a convoy ofconstruction trucks moving briskly on a scope and were able to stopit from crossing an active runway where a plane was about to land.

"It really makes the tower operation a lot better -- a lot safer,"said Ed Curran, a 24-year veteran controller at T.F. Green andpresident of the local chapter of the National Air TrafficControllers Assn. "You know exactly who it is, or where it is, orwhere it's going."

The FAA attributed the delays in the ASDE-X system at LAX toconstruction at other airports that required the agency to installthe equipment at those facilities first.

Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International needed the system for anew air traffic control tower and a new runway, and Seattle-TacomaInternational needed it to be installed at the same time as a newrunway, said Ian Gregor, an FAA spokesman. He emphasized that thecurrent runway safety equipment at LAX is not "insufficient in anyway."

"The FAA is always pushing the technology envelope," Gregor said."Given the scope and complexity of what we're doing, it's inevitablethat delays will occasionally occur."

Los Angeles World Airports, the city agency that operates LAX,expected to get the ASDE-X system this year. The Airport Commissionvoted two years ago to help defray costs. LAWA will pay two-thirds ofthe system's installation costs, or about $4.8 million.

"To operate safely as the primary international gateway airport onthe West Coast, LAX must have the latest technology and modernairfield geometry," said Paul Haney, deputy executive director ofairports and security. "This is not a place where we're willing tocut corners or delay what we know needs to be done."

Legal discussions between the FAA and the city contributed to thedelay. The system is scheduled to be delivered to LAX in August --about 18 months later than originally planned. The agency says itstill intends to meet its original plan to have the system up andrunning by June 2009.

Aviation experts disagree about whether ASDE-X is necessary.

"It is not critical to the safe operation of any airport," Gregorsaid. "The most significant thing, numerous studies have shown, isconstant awareness and vigilance of everyone who operates in therunway environment."

But pilots and academics who study close calls between aircraft onthe ground disagree, saying the equipment is essential becauseairports have gone as far as they can to stem such incidents byinstalling upgraded lighting and runway markings and by educatingpilots and other workers about the airfield layout.

At LAX, the rate of close calls has remained stubbornly high,despite years of efforts to ensure that pilots and controllers followfederal rules that allow only one plane at a time on or near arunway. Among the nation's airports, LAX is unusual because aircraftcross its four parallel active runways about 900 times a day.

"Integrated technology is the silver bullet," said Mack Moore, aretired United Airlines captain and aviation safety expert. "Whatwe're depending on now is human beings -- the most failure-pronecomponent is the human being."

Moore and others would rather have a system that directly alertspilots of an impending collision on the ground. Such equipment isunder development but would require a hefty investment from thecash-strapped airlines.

Another delayed upgrade at LAX involves a system known as RemoteARTS Color Display, or RACD. The equipment will replace monitors thathang from the ceiling in the tower and are used by controllers tomonitor arriving aircraft. To ready it for installation, the FAA hasbeen testing the $550,000 system for months.

The FAA hopes to begin installing 10 monitors, fed by sixcomputers, in the first quarter of 2007 and says controllers shouldbe trained and ready to use the system 30 days after installation.

Controllers say the new equipment would have helped them avert aclose call in August 2004 in which an arriving jumbo jet narrowlymissed a departing Boeing 737 after a mix-up that opened the samerunway to both planes. An independent federal safety agency laterused the incident to dramatize the ongoing problem with close callsat LAX and other airports.

If the Asiana Airlines jet's image on the radar scope had beencolorized, controllers more easily could have seen that it was headedfor the same runway where a Southwest jet was awaiting clearance fortakeoff. The Asiana captain aborted the landing, coming withinseveral hundred feet of the Southwest airplane.

"Every aircraft landing on an inner runway would be a differentcolor than someone coming in on outboard," said Foote, the LAXcontroller. "The clarity of the picture is crystal clear, and we canread data tags through each other. Right now it's a jumbled mess ...on our radar scope."

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