FAA Eases Rule for Small Plane Altitude Radar
The Federal Aviation Administration, bowing to unprecedented pressure from small-plane operators, Thursday significantly scaled back its plans to require widespread use of altitude-reporting equipment on virtually all planes.
The much-anticipated agency ruling, made after months of discussion, requires the use of “Mode C” transponders--radar equipment that alerts air traffic controllers to a plane’s position--on aircraft flying near 138 airports nationwide.
Under current policy, the equipment is needed only on planes flying around the nation’s 27 busiest airports. However, the new regulation scales back a previous plan that would have applied to 254 airports.
That initial plan, issued in February and spurred largely by the August, 1986, mid-air collision of a small plane and a Aeromexico DC-9 airliner over Cerritos, sparked a huge protest from pilots. The FAA received 66,000 letters. Operators of crop dusters, antique planes and other non-airline planes complained that they seldom came into conflict with airline traffic and that many would effectively be grounded under the ruling. Some less-sophisticated aircraft--those lacking electrical systems--cannot be equipped easily with the device.
FAA chief T. Allan McArtor said in a statement that the new compromise regulation, which allows more airspace for these planes to operate, will go into effect in stages between July, 1989, and December, 1990. It “will increase the margin of safety for all operations,” he said.
But the airline industry’s principal trade group assailed the FAA for backing down from the original February proposal, which would have prohibited planes without Mode C from flying in most of Southern California.
“The agency has missed an opportunity to significantly reduce chance of mid-air collisions,” Stephen Hayes, vice president of the Air Transport Assn., said in a telephone interview.
Hayes called the FAA’s final decision “watered down” and said: “Clearly, this rule is an improvement from the current situation, but they (FAA officials) should have gone further. They knuckled under to pressure.”
Ed Stimpson, president of the General Aviation Manufacturers Assn., a group that has supported some increased use of the altitude-tracking technology but attacked the FAA’s original plan as “overkill,” said of the final ruling:
“Overall, I’d have to say we’re pretty happy with it. We still have some questions that need answering, but this is clearly a more realistic rule” than the one originally proposed.
McArtor asserted that his agency’s ruling “will have a major impact on safety by providing controllers with vital altitude information so potential conflicts between air carrier and general aviation aircraft can be safely resolved.”
Under the new ruling, by June 1, 1989, Mode C transponders also will be required in any plane flying above 10,000 feet mean sea level, but few unsophisticated planes fly at that altitude. Currently, Mode C is required for all planes above 12,500 feet, and the February proposal would have mandated its use at about 6,000 feet.
The equipment will also be required within 30-mile radius of the 27 largest airports. The February plan had specified 40 miles.
By Dec. 30, 1990, all planes operating in Airport Radar Service Areas, which surround 109 additional medium-sized airports, will have to use Mode C. The size of these areas varies. In California, that expansion will include 11 additional airports: Burbank-Glendal1697468513Sacramento Metropolitan, Ontario International, Santa Ana, and six air force bases--Beale, Castle, McClellan, March, Mather and Norton.
