LAX to Install Enhanced Ground Radar Systems to Improve Safety

Los Angeles International Airport will be one of 15 airports to receive a new ground radar system that will help controllers avert potential collisions between aircraft by displaying a detailed picture of the 3,600-acre airfield, federal officials announced Wednesday.

The news came as aviation officials released statistics showing that John Wayne Airport, Long Beach Airport and LAX had high rates of close calls between aircraft. The facilities ranked second, third and sixth, respectively, among the nation’s 25 busiest commercial airports for such incidents between Oct. 1, 2004, and Sept. 30 of this year.

At LAX, aviation officials hailed the new radar system as a way to reduce incidents in which aircraft get too close by giving controllers precise information about their movements on the airfield. The Federal Aviation Administration has spent years developing the system -- which could ultimately cost $505 million to develop and install at about 38 airports. Officials expect the LAX system to be in operation sometime next year.

“This will be a much more powerful set of eyes for controllers to see things that now can’t be seen and to identify specifically what they are,” said Donn Walker, an FAA spokesman. “Any time you can give air traffic controllers the most accurate picture of what is on the airfield the better, and that can only help the cause of runway safety.”

The existing ground radar system at LAX shows objects as blobs on a monochromatic screen and doesn’t distinguish between a person, a vehicle and an aircraft.

The new technology, known as Airport Surface Detection Equipment, Model X, or ASDE-X, will not only show that an object is an aircraft, but will also identify the airline and flight number.

It works by picking up signals sent by existing radar and sensors on the airfield and by transponders in aircraft. At LAX, officials will install 16 sensors to eliminate blind spots that exist because the current radar system cannot see through buildings and other static objects.

“We’re happy to see this. It’s about time,” said Mike Foote, a controller in the LAX tower and local president of the National Air Traffic Controllers Assn. “This will help with traffic flow and dealing with aircraft in cargo alleyways -- especially where we can’t see them.”

The new radar will also help controllers see moving objects at the remote gates located near the sand dunes on the western edge of the airfield.

Foote, however, doesn’t believe the upgraded technology, which will cost $8 million to install at LAX, will significantly improve runway safety.

“It will help us be more efficient with aircraft, especially how we deal with traffic in low visibility,” he said.

But controllers and managers at airports in Northern California complained earlier this fall, after the FAA removed the facilities from its priority list to receive the new radar, that the decision left them vulnerable to collisions between aircraft.

Airport managers in the Southland said they expected to use the new radar as another tool to help cut the number of close calls at their facilities.

LAX and Long Beach Airport have struggled for years to reduce such incidents.

From Oct. 1, 2004, to Sept. 30, LAX had eight such incidents, for a rate of 1.22 per 100,000 takeoffs and landings. That gave it the sixth-highest rate of safety violations among the nation’s 25 busiest commercial airports. John Wayne also reported eight runway incursions, a rate of 2.13, putting it in second place, and Long Beach had six, for a rate of 1.71, making it third.

Boston’s Logan International Airport was first, with 15 incidents and a rate of 3.5 per 100,000 takeoffs and landings.

At LAX, officials have spent millions to update the airfield with additional lighting and improved runway and taxiway markings. They have also worked to educate pilots.

Airport officials also hope to start construction in January to move the southernmost runway 55 feet closer to El Segundo and to install a center taxiway that they say would reduce safety violations on the south side.

The airport has two sets of parallel runways. Pilots land on the outer runways and must traverse a series of taxiways across the inner runways to reach the terminals -- sometimes coming too close to other aircraft.

Officials say they have made progress in reducing incursions at LAX. “We’re pleased our efforts to reduce the runway incursion rate through numerous operational and airfield improvements are paying off,” said Paul Haney, an airport spokesman.

At Long Beach, officials said the airfield’s five intersecting runways, and its diverse fleet, where helicopters operate among turboprops and military and commercial aircraft, contribute to close calls.

The airport has tested several new technologies to help pilots navigate the airfield, including a stoplight system that warns pilots to stop before crossing active runways, said spokeswoman Sharon Diggs-Jackson.

At John Wayne, officials are also doing outreach to pilots and updating signs and airfield markings, said Jenny Wedge, an airport spokeswoman.

Officials at all three airports said that even though the rate of close calls at their facilities is high, the severity of such incidents has dropped, meaning that the likelihood of a collision was very low.