Taiwan launches new generation air traffic control system

Taipei, Oct.5 (CNA) Flight safety and service quality will be greatly improved with the introduction of a new generation air traffic control system, Minister of Transportation Mao Chi-Kuo said Wednesday at the inauguration ceremony.

The new network employs is a global positioning system (GPS) instead of the traditional ground-based navigation infrastructure, which will make air traffic management easier and more efficient, said Mao said at the Northern Taiwan Air Navigation and Weather Services in Taoyuan.

One of the advantages of the new system is that it has shifted from manual to automatic operations, allowing for more precise coordination of aircraft performance, flight information, weather conditions and runway usage, he said.

In other words, he said, an optimal landing sequence can be decided in advance, thus reducing flight delays, traffic congestion and fuel consumption, he said.

Flight safety will also be improved with the advanced satellite and digital communication technology that can more accurately locate aircraft, he said.

With the new system, the distance between landing flights could be reduced from 30-50 nautical miles to less than 15 nautical miles, according to the Civil Aeronautics Administration (CAA).

"A smoother flight control system means we can work more closely with other regional aviation hubs such as Fukuoka, Manila, Shanghai and Hong Kong," said Jean Shen, director of the CAA's Air Navigation and Weather Services.

The network, which took NT$4.4 billion (US$144.3 million) and more than 10 years to build, is the first of its kind in East Asia, Shen said.

For air traffic controller Mao Hsiu-ju, a modern control center with the most up-to-date equipment means, among other things, a better working environment.

"We no longer need to spend all day in a dim room, with our eyes fixed on the radar," said the 40-year-old who has worked for 18 years in that job.

"I used to feel like 'the lady in the tower,' but I think with the new system I won't feel like that anymore." (By Lee Hsin-Yin) enditem/pc

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Plane crash blamed on faulty GPS

A VICTORIAN coroner has found a malfunctioning global positioning system led a pilot off course ahead of a 2004 plane crash near Benalla that killed all six people on board.

Benalla timber company D&R Henderson’s executive Robert Henderson, his daughter Jackie, her husband Alan Stark and their friends Belinda Andrews and Geoff Brockie were killed when the twin-engined Piper Cheyenne slammed into a tree-covered ridge at Myrrhee in bad weather.

The pilot, Kerry Endicott, was also killed in the July 28, 2004 crash.

He had flown the Sydney-to-Benalla route weekly since 1988.

The inquest had previously heard the GPS had moved into “dead reckoning mode” for an unknown reason by the time Mr Endicott had announced his approach to Benalla Airport at 10.45am.

Coroner Paresa Spanos found Mr Endicott had been flying in cloud with no visual cues that he was flying off track and/or into terrain.

Ms Spanos said he had begun an approach relying on GPS and no land-based navigational aids.

“It is reasonable to infer that he believed that operations were normal and that in ‘scanning’ the array of instruments before him he focused on information from the GPS unit,” she said.

“Taking all evidence before me into account, I find that the accident which took the lives of all six deceased was caused by navigation with the GPS in dead reckoning mode.”

Ms Spanos also found Mr Endicott was not made aware of two previous alerts activated with air traffic controllers that the aircraft had deviated from its planned flight path.

Instead the inquest heard an air traffic controller had twice rerouted the plane from its current position without communicating with Mr Endicott about his track deviation, believing he had chosen a different approach to the Benalla airport.

“In doing so, he contributed to the accident as there was a lost opportunity for avoidance of the accident,” Ms Spanos said.

She said evidence regarding Mr Endicott’s cardiac history did not support a finding that any existing coronary condition, heart disease or any other disease in Mr Endicott, had either caused or contributed to his death or the accident.

“While the possibility of a causally relevant cardiac episode cannot be entirely excluded, it is a mere possibility, given other circumstantial evidence,” she said.

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JetBlue gets GPS from FAA

FAA is paying $4.2 million to install new GPS navigation systems on 35 JetBlue planes, hoping the enhanced performance will entice other airlines to do the same.

Federal Aviation Administration plans to move away from ground-based radar and start using GPS as a way to control air traffic. If all goes well, the new system – aka NextGen – will relieve traffic congestion, reduce delays, and even increase fuel efficiency.

FAA claims NextGen will reduce flight delays by 20 percent which translates to millions in fuel costs and will also cut CO2 emissions. But there are some upfront costs. For each plane the basic system will cost between 32K and 175K depending on the age of the aircraft. The full package however ranges between 162K and 670K. This package transmits data back to the cockpit that would alert pilots to the traffic, weather and terrain around them.

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