CHICAGO — A new ground radar system designed to prevent runway collisions at the nation’s busiest airports loses accuracy during snowstorms at O’Hare Airport and can fail to see snowplows, baggage carts and other vehicles, the president of the local air traffic controllers union warned Thursday.
Joseph Bellino, president of the O’Hare affiliate of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association, said the system is putting the public in danger.
“When we say ‘cleared to land,’ we’re saying that runway is clear of all obstructions on the runway. If it’s snowing, we say it, but we’re keeping our fingers crossed,” he said.
The Federal Aviation Administration denied the situation is as bad as Bellino portrayed it, and said it usually takes a year to fine-tune the software to account for differences in airport layout and weather. The system has been in operation at O’Hare — the nation’s second-busiest airport and one of its snowiest — since July.
“The controllers union leadership shouldn’t be trying to scare the public,” said FAA spokesman Tony Molinaro. He said ground radar is a “secondary tool” used by controllers trained to use their eyes and conversations with pilots to avoid problems.
Molinaro also said the system is better than its predecessor at helping controllers keep track of objects other than planes. The old system sometimes produced false or duplicate images during heavy rain.
No collisions have been blamed on the new system, called Airport Surface Detection Equipment, Model X, or ASDE-X.
The technology was first installed at the Milwaukee airport in 2003 after years of testing. It is now in operation at 11 airports, with plans for 24 more by 2011, according to the FAA.
The FAA acknowledged that during a heavy snowstorm earlier this month, ASDE-X had trouble correctly identifying long lines of snowplows and other movements on the ground.
In a statement, the agency said it is looking into whether the problem could be solved by equipping ground vehicles with transponders — electronic devices used by airplanes to send out an identifying signal.
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
