Southwest adds cockpit safety alerts across fleet – Business News
Southwest Airlines on Monday mentioned it has added cockpit safety alerts to just about its complete fleet of 800 plane.
The safety alert system, designed by Honeywell, units off verbal and textual content warnings if a pilot is about to make use of the flawed runway or approaches too fast for touchdown.
It’s just like the alert systems utilized in many trendy automobiles, dinging when a driver edges too close to a different car, individual or curb.
A Southwest Airlines aircraft takes off from Las Vegas International Airport in February. REUTERS
“Honeywell’s SmartRunway and SmartLanding software will provide our pilots with enhanced situational awareness to ensure the highest level of safety while operating on runways throughout the network,” Andrew Watterson, Southwest’s chief working officer, mentioned in a assertion.
The technology is an attempt to keep away from incidents like one which occurred on March 20, when a Southwest aircraft began taking off from a taxiway at Orlando International Airport as a substitute of the runway working alongside it, in accordance with a Wall Street Journal report.
Thankfully, an air-traffic controller intervened earlier than take-off – serving to to keep away from a potential crash on a short taxiway or collision with one other aircraft.
But it’s potential the Honeywell alert might have chimed in sooner, warning: “On taxiway! On taxiway!”
In 2017, an Air Canada jet practically landed on a taxiway at San Francisco’s airport – the place 4 planes waited with 1,000 passengers on-board.
The following yr, the National Transportation Safety Board discovered that Honeywell’s alerts may need been in a position to alert the Air Canada pilots of the error properly earlier than the near-miss.
Honeywell’s alert system can even warn pilots when they’re approaching a runway too fast, too high or in the event that they’re overshooting the runway for a “long landing.”
The Honeywell alerts can alert pilots when they’re approaching a taxiway as a substitute of a runway, or flying too high or fast for a touchdown. AFP by way of Getty Images
“Honeywell systems and software onboard aircraft today help enhance situational awareness for pilots and flight crews — especially in low visibility flying conditions — to avoid wrong surface operations and runway excursions,” Thea Feyereisen, pilot and fellow at Honeywell Aerospace Technologies, mentioned in a notice.
“We can’t rely on just one system, as it could fail, and we need multiple ways to notify the pilots of a safety alert – sight, sound and sometimes tactile displays.”
Southwest determined so as to add the Honeywell alerts across its Boeing 737 fleet early final yr to handle safety dangers, in accordance with Watterson.
Last August, an advisory panel advisable the Federal Aviation Administration require new plane to come back outfitted with sure cockpit alerts. It didn’t prolong this suggestion to older, present planes.
An inside view of the cockpit of a Boeing 737 Max. Getty Images
The FAA is reviewing this suggestion.
In December, Southwest additionally instructed flight attendants to begin cleansing up the cabin earlier within the touchdown course of – round 18,000 ft as a substitute of 10,000 ft – in an effort to cut back accidents among the many crew.
Other carriers like Alaska Airlines have added the Honeywell alerts to their planes, whereas producers like Airbus and Boeing are engaged on their own runway alerts.
Meanwhile, carriers are attempting to ease fears of flying following a number of highly-reported crashes and near-misses.
Some 64% of Americans mentioned they consider air journey may be very or considerably secure – a drop from 71% the yr earlier than, in accordance with a ballot carried out by AP-NORC in February.
