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Nervous plane passengers must be getting a bit more nervous this week if they’re keeping up with the headlines. The risks of runway collisions plus an increase in the number of planes landing with almost no fuel left are just a couple of the problems that have been made public this week, and it’s enough to make an experienced passenger think a little harder about what kind of plane they’re boarding.
Nearly Out Of Fuel
This disturbing trend came out of a Department of Transport report - there’s been a surprising increase in the number of times planes have had to request emergency landing clearance because they’re running so low on fuel. The statistics come out of Newark Airport in New York, and cover the entire flying year of 2007 – and it sounds a bit scary.
Apparently, the vast majority of the low fuel incidents involved Continental Airlines planes. The worst part is that the DOT got hold of several bulletins issued to pilots which included concerns from management that there was too much fuel being added to planes, and that this practice would be affecting profit sharing and pension funding for employees! And although such a report is probably taken somewhat out of context, just the idea that such a thought could be written down is a little frightening. Interestingly, though, this trend wasn’t seen at any other US airports.
Near Misses on the Runway
Perhaps the more major flying problem to hit the headlines this week isn’t about flying at all – but rather about moving about on runways. This time it was the National Transportation Safety Board which produced a report showing that what they call “runway incursions” – something, usually a plane or a vehicle, being on the runway when it shouldn’t – doubled at some US airports over the past year.
All kinds of problems are apparently leading to these potentially dangerous situations. Tired pilots landing on the wrong runway, inexperienced and fatigued air traffic controllers, a culture in which nobody reports mistakes and behind the pace technology are all contributing to planes being on runways at the wrong time or in the wrong place. Experts agree that the vast majority of runway incursions are caused by human error, and they mostly agree that the way to fix them is to invest more money in better systems, technology, training and staff. But when airlines are desperately trying to cut costs just to deal with rising fuel costs, and airports are struggling too, fixing this kind of problem might not be the highest priority on the list.
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