Austin airport gets new runway safety technology that could have prevented near misses

Austin-Bergstrom International Airport will have crucial new runway safety equipment installed by the end of the month. Federal investigators say the technology could have prevented a near-miss between two planes that could have killed 131 people last year.

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is completing the installation of equipment that will provide air traffic controllers with a visual representation of aircraft locations on runways and taxiways. The system will be tested next week.

The so-called Surface Awareness Initiative (SAI) system is a cheaper alternative to ground-based radar, which bounces radio waves off objects to determine their location. The SAI system relies on radios installed in aircraft to automatically transmit their position.

Austin is one of the first four airports in the country to receive the SAI system.

“(This will) further improve our safety on runways and taxiways, and we are grateful to our partners at the FAA for prioritizing Austin Airport as one of the premier airports of the country to receive this equipment,” said Ghizlane Badawi, CEO of ABIA. at a news conference last month to celebrate the passage of the $105 billion FAA reauthorization law, which funds the deployment of such systems nationwide.

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) recommended installing the equipment at all major airports that do not have ground radar following an investigation into the near miss at ABIA on February 4, 2023. FedEx Boeing 767 came within 150 feet of crashing into a Southwest Airlines plane on the runway. The Southwest plane, bound for Cancún, had 128 people on board. The FedEx jet had three.

If the planes had collided and all 131 people died, it would have been the second worst aviation disaster in Texas history, after the crash of Delta Flight 191 at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport in 1985. which killed 137 people.

NTSB investigators faulted an Austin air traffic controller for assuming the Southwest Airlines plane would take off before the FedEx plane landed on the same runway. That morning, dense fog prevented the controller from seeing the runway, and the Austin control tower had not conducted low visibility operations training in at least two years.

The Southwest Airlines crew was also cited for failing to inform the control tower that they needed more time to warm up their engines on that cold February morning.

But NTSB investigators said the incident likely would have been avoided if ABIA had installed the SAI technology.

“(SAI) would have provided the controller with a visual of the plane moving on a display screen in the airport tower, so that he would have had precise knowledge of where this plane was” , NTSB investigator Brian Soper said at a public hearing last week. .

News of the arrival of surface awareness technology was welcomed by those who oversee airport administrators, including members of the Austin City Council and the Airport Advisory Commission.

“Yes for FAA reauthorization,” Airport Commissioner Wendy Todd said Wednesday of the bipartisan bill signed into law May 16. “This provides the necessary funding so that we can get the advanced surveillance and we can get the additional agents needed, the air traffic controllers and the education for that.”

City officials have been working on their own system to show where planes are located near the terminal. The Austin City Council ordered in November that the deployment of the virtual ramp control system be accelerated to reduce the risk of ground collisions between planes.

The deployment of a temporary boom control system was delayed by ground-to-ground radio transmission problems. City staff have placed an order for new radios, but they could take up to 14 weeks to build.

ABIA staff identified a company to install a permanent boom control system. They hope to submit a contract proposal to airport commissioners in July. The municipal council will have to give its final approval.

But despite the safety improvements, some officials remain concerned about long-term staffing shortages at Austin's air traffic control tower. The NTSB report said personnel were not directly responsible for the near-miss between the Southwest and FedEx planes, but that controllers were working six days a week due to staffing shortages.

“While it is important to get this new system operational, I will not be satisfied with the level of security needed at our airport until our critical air traffic controller shortage is addressed,” said U.S. Rep. Lloyd Doggett, D -Austin, who lobbied the FAA to strengthen the number of controllers at the ABIA.

The NTSB will release a final report on this near miss within a few weeks.

This story was produced as part of the Austin Monitor's reporting partnership with KUT.

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