Revolutionizing Runway Safety: Phoenix Airports to Pioneer Collision Avoidance Tech
In an innovative step towards enhancing airport safety, Honeywell Aerospace has partnered with the City of Phoenix to develop groundbreaking technology aimed at preventing collisions between aircraft and ground vehicles. This initiative marks a significant advance in aviation safety technology.
The collaboration seeks to implement surface alert technology on ground vehicles to warn of imminent collisions. Known as SURF-A technology, this system leverages GPS and automatic dependent surveillance-broadcast (ADS-B) data to detect potential collisions before they occur, providing operators with both auditory and visual alerts.
Honeywell Aerospace’s Thea Feyereisen emphasized the critical nature of timely alerts, stating, “Seconds can be the difference between life or death in a situation like this. And so getting the alert to the vehicle driver or to the pilot as soon as you can gives the operators the most chance to avoid the disaster.” This technology can alert operators seven to 10 seconds faster than the current air traffic control systems.
Testing of this cutting-edge technology is set to commence at Phoenix Sky Harbor, Deer Valley, and Goodyear airports, marking the first instance of such technology being used on ground vehicles at any airport worldwide.
This initiative follows an incident earlier this year where an Air Canada regional jet collided with a fire truck at New York’s LaGuardia airport. Feyereisen explained that the project aims to prevent such tragedies, enhancing the safety of airfield operations. “NTSB (National Transportation Safety Board) has recommended that pilots get direct alerts of a potential runway collision,” Feyereisen said. “But we also think that vehicle drivers should also get those direct alerts. They’re also at risk when they’re operating in this dynamic environment.”
Installation of the technology on ground vehicles at Phoenix airports is scheduled for this month, with testing to continue through the year’s end.
Mayor Kate Gallego praised the initiative, stating, “Phoenix leads on innovation and has always embraced technology that makes our city safer and strengthens our position as a global leader in aviation. By partnering with hometown innovator Honeywell Aerospace, we bring first-of-its-kind collision-avoidance technology to ground vehicles on runways. This collaboration will help protect airport employees, passengers, and flight crews while advancing next generation runway safety around the world.”
