As a Boeing 757 aircraft prepared to land, an audio alert started blaring in the cockpit: “Traffic on runway! Traffic on runway!” Seconds later, the same warning popped up on the navigation display.
It prompted the pilot to abort the landing to avoid a possible collision. The alert was triggered by a smaller Gulfstream jet that was on the runway.
This was not a real-world incident but a staged test flight of Honeywell’s new cockpit safety system designed to prevent incidents like a near-collision between a Southwest Airlines aircraft and a private jet at Chicago’s Midway Airport in February and a crash at Tokyo’s Haneda Airport last year.
The technology known as SURF-A, or Surface-Alert, is the long-awaited addition to runway safety solutions that have been on the market for nearly two decades, but until recently failed to attract many customers.
But with recent high-profile runway incidents creating a new climate of safety concern, pressure is building on aviation authorities to make cockpit alert systems mandatory.
COCKPIT ALERTS SEEN BOOSTING AVIATION SAFETY
Japan has submitted a working paper to the ongoing triennial policy-setting meeting of global aviation leaders, highlighting cockpit alert systems as a crucial safety measure for preventing runway incursions. The paper was drafted in response to the Haneda crash.
The National Transportation Safety Board, which investigates all civil aviation accidents, has been consistently recommending it.
Southwest, which began using the technology this year, attests to the benefits. The Dallas-based airline has seen a significant improvement in its key safety performance indicators since the system came on board, Southwest’s vice president of safety and security, Dave Hunt, told Reuters.
The U.S. carrier began installing the system in spring and now has it on almost all of its 800 aircraft. “We feel this is a very important and effective layer to prevent runway incursions, runway collisions,” Hunt said.
The International Civil Aviation Organization lists runway collisions or incursions among the top five risks to aviation safety. Runways were involved in 42% of accidents worldwide between 2019 and 2023, the ICAO, a United Nations agency, said.
The Federal Aviation Administration recorded almost five incursions or incorrect movements of planes or other objects per day in the fiscal year 2024.