Editorial: Improving flight safety

Thursday, Nov. 16, 2006 | 7:07 a.m.

As the nation enters the flight-filled holiday travel season, federal aviation investigators are renewing calls for better safety devices after noting two years of increases in the number of near-collisions on airport runways.

According to a story in Wednesday's USA Today, the number of "high-risk" incidents on runways is 31 this year, compared to 29 in 2005 and 28 in 2004. Although the numbers are small - about one near-collision occurs for every 2 million takeoffs and landings - they are cause for concern because they are increasing.

The chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board, which investigates crashes and near-collisions, said the increase is "unacceptable" and added that "we've been running on luck for far too long," USA Today reports.

Federal Aviation Administration officials are testing a system in which lights embedded in runways flash red when another plane gets too close - as happened in Chicago in July when two jets missed colliding by 35 feet.

Better technology certainly can help, but there also needs to be better control over the human aspects of safe landings and takeoffs. Last August in Kentucky, a Comair flight accidentally took off from a runway that was too short and crashed just after liftoff, killing 49 of the 50 people aboard. The air traffic controller, who was working alone, had only two hours of sleep and was trying to do administrative duties while communicating with pilots.

The FAA's tests of the runway lighting system aren't completed, and the system is expected to be expensive to install. An improved navigation system for planes also is being developed, but won't be in use until 2014. Tragedies such as the one in Kentucky and the increase in near-collisions show that we don't have years to wait. Our airport runways need better safety now. Adequately staffing air traffic control towers with employees who have had enough sleep would be a good start.