Category: Life around runways

Everything you need to know to operate on and around runways safely

Airfield Engineering Asset Maintenance – A sector report

This article was compiled by Bryan Camoens and Ed Haines for the Airfield Engineering and Asset Maintenance 2011 Conference. You can contact Bryan here. To visit the conference web-site, click here. Airport engineers, operational and maintenance heads are working under extremely challenging operational scheduling and cost constraints. In addition new, larger aircraft types and higher… Continue reading Airfield Engineering Asset Maintenance – A sector report

Near midair at Minneapolis-St. Paul airport (MSP)

On the morning of September 16, at around 06.49 a US Airways Airbus A320 (N122US) operating as flight AWE 1848 was cleared for take-off from Runway 30R bound for Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, with five crew and 90 passengers on board. At the same time, Bemidji Aviation Services flight BMJ46, a Beech 99 cargo flight with only… Continue reading Near midair at Minneapolis-St. Paul airport (MSP)

Brussels Airlines 737 starts take-off roll with flaps retracted

Last Thursday, 22 April was notable for the fact that after the long disruption caused by the volcanic cloud over Europe, traffic was finally getting back to normal. Brussels Airlines flight SN2901 Brussels-Vienna was still at the gate shortly before 0710a, its schedules departure time, with both the aircraft door and the cockpit door still… Continue reading Brussels Airlines 737 starts take-off roll with flaps retracted

Aircraft based tools in the fight against runway incursions

Aircraft-based airport surface traffic indications and alerting systems This is an edited version of the presentation made at the recent ESAVS 2010 conference by Doug Arbuckle of the FAA. Coauthors of the paper were David E. Gray of FAA, Peter Moertl of Mitre Corporation and Jim Duke of SAIC. You can download the original text of… Continue reading Aircraft based tools in the fight against runway incursions

The communications related aspects of runway incursions

More than two incursions a day… Few other incidents return with the grim and persistent regularity of runway incursions. A lot of effort by all concerned has resulted in a reduction of the total number of incidents but there are still, on average, more than two runway incursions in Europe per day. Clearly, there remains… Continue reading The communications related aspects of runway incursions

New tools in the arsenal to prevent runway incursions – RWSL and FAROS

Although take-offs and a landing from and on taxiways had filled the news recently, the problem of runway incursions is much more of a problem and in spite of major efforts on the part of all concerned, pilots, air traffic controllers and ground vehicle drivers, it refuses to go away. Not that there are no… Continue reading New tools in the arsenal to prevent runway incursions – RWSL and FAROS

A taxiway will do, take 2 – Aeroflot Airbus takes off from taxiway in Oslo

EUROCONTROL’s Preventing Runway Incursions Portal has a quiz designed to test the knowledge of pilots, air traffic controllers and vehicle drivers about, among others, the runway and taxiway environment. One of the questions shows a concrete surface with white markings in a limited visibility environment, seen from the cockpit window. The question: are we on a… Continue reading A taxiway will do, take 2 – Aeroflot Airbus takes off from taxiway in Oslo

A taxiway will do… KLM 737 takes-off from Taxiway B in Amsterdam

I do have a trip scheduled to Warsaw… what I pity I was not on KL1369 two days ago! As I said in another article, I am one of the few air travelers who does check the life west (under your seat you know), follows the safety briefing and confirms the nearest exit (may be… Continue reading A taxiway will do… KLM 737 takes-off from Taxiway B in Amsterdam

Watch this take off!!

  The Russian IL-76 cargo plane can lift a payload of 1 million pounds. When she is taking off on a warm and calm day in Australia, every inch of the runway will be needed. Download this great video, shot from the tower, to see just how fine those Russian pilots had cut it. You can… Continue reading Watch this take off!!