Runway Safety in Taiwan Crash

* Re “Pilot Saw Barrier on Closed Runway Too Late, Jet Crash Inquiry Reveals,” Nov. 4: In this country, there are redundant safety features at airports: Runways under construction would have a large X painted at each end, the large runway designation letters painted at the end of the runway (05R) would be removed, and the ground traffic controller would advise the pilot that he is in the wrong place. One would hope that similar safety precautions were supposed to be in place in Taiwan. It is hard to understand how this accident happened.

RONALD FEGLEY

Whittier

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* When an airport that has a runway under repair fails to block off access to it and the pilot of an operating aircraft enters that runway during the limited visibility of a typhoon, why is that pilot error?

The airport is at least as culpable as the pilot. He may have made an error, but the tragic consequences of that mistake could have been fully prevented if anyone in airport operations had enough sense to realize that access to that runway should have been fully closed off when it became inoperable. It’s like not bothering to put up warning lights and barriers when the bridge down the road is washed out and expecting drivers to not make the wrong turn in the night and in heavy rain. And then they blame the poor pilot.

ED SHOOP

Somis