Aircraft , the collision to avoid

As global air traffic expands at record rates, experts warn that near misses on the ground at overcrowded airports are becoming one of the most serious safety concerns in civil aviation.

Remember this back in 1978, although this is not happen on the runway.
At nine o'clock on the morning of Monday, September 25, 1978, the skies of Southern California were a clear blue, the visibility conservatively estimated at ten miles. Yet before two minutes more had passed, one hundred and forty-four people were to die as a result of two aircraft colliding in mid-air.
The lessons learned that the primary cause of the disaster was that the Captain of PSA Flight 182 lost sight of the other aircraft and didn't clearly tell ATC that had done so.
The controllers failed to appreciate that PSA 182 lost sight of the Cessna, or even that there was some confusion as to its position. This should have been obivious from the radio transmission from the aircraft.
The possible presence of a third, unidentified and unauthorised aircraft may have confused the crew of PSA 182 as to the position of the Cessna.
ATC procedures were confused and poorly cor-ordinated allowing the controllers to authorise visual separation procedures when a radar service was available. This would have been safer, giving lateral and vertical separation between both aircraft.
The controller failed to advise Flight 182 as to the direction of movement of the Cessna.
The pilot of the Cessna didn't stay on his assigned heading, or inform the controller that he could not do so. Had he maintained this heading the collision not have taken place.
San Diego Approach Control failed to react to the conflict alert. No warning was passed to either pilot.
SDAC did not restrict Flight 182 to a minimum height of 4,000 feet while it was within the Montgomery Field traffic area. Had it done so the collision would not have occurred.

Until now more lesson to learn.
The danger arises when airports try to alleviate bottlenecks by adding runways. That leads to more taxiways intersecting the runways, raising the risk of accidental incursions — where an aircraft or vehicle becomes a collision hazard by venturing onto a runway being used for takeoffs and landings. "Runway incursions are right at the top of our agenda," said Gideon Ewers, spokesman for the International Federation of Airline Pilots' Associations.
"They are happening more and more frequently as air traffic increases and older airport designs struggle to cope. Of course most incursions pass without incident, but when they do occur the results are very bad indeed," Ewers said.
The deadliest disaster in aviation history occurred 30 years ago as a result of such an encroachment. The ground collision in 1977 between two fully loaded Boeing 747s in Spain's Canary Islands killed 583 people.
Since then, numerous such accidents have ended in tragedy and experts are now racing to develop systems to prevent even deadlier disasters.
According to Eurocontrol, an average of two incursions take place each day at Europe's 600 civil airports. And in the United States — where reporting standards are different — 182 incidents have been recorded so far in 2007, compared to 158 last year.
The most serious recent accident occurred on Oct. 8, 2001, when a Scandinavian Airline System MD-87 on takeoff smashed into a Cessna Citation which had encroached onto the runway. A total of 118 people died.
More frequent are close calls like one in July at Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, where two jets missed each other by less than 10 meters (30 feet). A United flight with 133 passengers on board missed a turn on the taxiway and entered an active runway where a Delta jet was about to land with 167 passengers.
"In an ideal world you'd have no runway crossings at all," said Paul Wilson, head of Airport Operations at Eurocontrol, Europe's air navigation agency. "But the reality is that as an airport becomes busier, it also introduces more sophisticated guidance systems and procedures to prevent runway incursions."
A Federal Aviation Administration study found that the well-designed Washington Dulles airport in the United States had only four incursions during the period from 1997 to 2000, compared to Los Angeles Airport with a complex layout of multiple intersecting runways and taxiways — which had 29 incursions.
Experts say that when the volume of traffic — projected to double over the next 10-15 years — is taken into account, the potential for near misses and fatal accidents is growing fast.
"It is a problem that affects just about every airport," Wilson said.
The international pilots' union blames poorly designed airports as the primary cause of incursions. High traffic density, complicated operational procedures, nonstandard markings, and poor comprehension of English among cockpit crew add to the risks.
Although low proficiency in English — the standard language of aviation — plays a major role, foreign pilots also complain that air traffic controllers in the United States contribute to the problem by using confusing abbreviations or long and complex instructions.
As a result, the FAA now requires U.S. controllers to provide clear and explicit taxiing instructions to pilots, including the exact route to their designated runway and not merely which runway to use.
In order to minimize future risks, Eurocontrol, FAA and other national air safety agencies are looking into using advanced runway incursion alert systems that detect potential collisions on runways and give advance warning to controllers and pilots.
One such system developed by the National Aerospace Laboratory in the Netherlands and used at Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport alerts controllers to potential collisions by flashing labels on their radar screens together with audio signals. All aircraft and vehicle movements are depicted in real time on an airport map, unlike conventional radar which has a lag of several seconds.
And when Schiphol added a new, sixth runway, multiple runway crossings were specifically avoided, said Bert Ruitenberg, the airport's operational safety expert. Instead, taxiways to the new runway were built around the perimeter of existing runways.
In addition, red lights embedded in the tarmac prevent planes from entering an active runway. Ruitenberg said such stop lights should become standard airport equipment.
"At some airports expansion is driven just by capacity," Ruitenberg said. "But designers will find it is better to plan with safety in mind (because) this could avoid a lot of the problems that may occur afterward."

There is no doubt the dangers of flying is enormous, we as human being what we can do is to minimise all possibilities.

China 'on' for aircraft carrier

When you watch how aircraft (Picture Above the retired F-14 Tomcat coming in for a landing)land and take off from an aircraft carrier it's pretty amazing choreography. It's took a decades of experince to fully utilised it. It's more avident in US Navy, other than the others. At least eight other countries have one or two aircraft carriers, including India and Thailand.

China remains the only major global power without aircraft carriers in its fleet. For years, military leaders have weighed the pride that such vessels would bring the nation with the costs and complexity of operating the giant ships, continually postponing a decision.

But now public sentiment is running strongly in favor of launching a program to build aircraft carriers, and some military experts say construction may be inevitable China already has three decommissioned aircraft carriers, all bought from Russia . Military engineers dissected two to see how they worked, then moored them as tourist attractions. The third, the Varyag, is at a secret military base in Dalian , on the Yellow Sea.

Meanwhile, mystery surrounds the Varyag. The huge ship was only 70 percent built— still without engines or rudders— when China bought it for $20 million , far more than its scrap value. The vessel was towed from the Ukraine around the Cape of Good Hope, arriving in Dalian early in 2002. Some foreign experts say China is restoring the flight deck.

"I . . . believe the Varyag will serve as a transitional platform to train pilots and to perfect doctrine— both how to use a carrier and how to sink one," said Fisher, who's the vice president of the International Assessment and Strategy Center in Alexandria, Va .

A Hong Kong -based publication, Kanwa Asian Defence, reported in September that some Chinese-built J-10 fighters now carry tail hooks needed for carrier landings. Kanwa said China would wait until the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games had passed to announce its plans to build aircraft carriers "due to concerns over its international image

While Soviet studies of carrier aviaton were commenced as long ago as 1952. At the time of Korean war still raging. But by then, the west had four decades of experinece. Even today, a further five decades on, they have still not caught up. But the gap has closed enormously.
Soviet have a flight trials commenced on Tbilisi in 1989 with an Su-27 Flanker, MiG-29 Fulcrum and Su-25 Frogfoot. All aircraft was extensively modified for the task.

Until now there is not much news off what really going on Soviet Navy. We haven't seen anything yet comparable to US Navy aircraft carrier or probably we won't.

USAF suspended F-15s flight

A well known McDonnell Douglas F-15 Eagle a front line fighter as it's known before acquired by Boeing is really a classic fighter. First flight 27 July 1972 and entered service in March 1974 in order to counter the emergence of the MiG-23 and MiG-25. Basically an old design of the 70's although always ugraded along with the development of latest radar, engine, missile system and avionics. Since it's replacement already in service that's Boeing F-22 Raptor. Now it's slowly phase out or upgraded and offer for sale to US allies.

The Air Force has suspended some F-15 flights, citing a possible structural failure discovered after one of the fighter jets crashed in central Missouri.
All "non-mission critical" flights were suspended Saturday, a day after the Missouri Air National Guard jet crashed in a wooded area about 120 miles southwest of St. Louis, the Air Force said in a release dated Sunday.

The pilot ejected and was released from a hospital Saturday after treatment for a dislocated shoulder, broken arm and minor cuts. No one else was hurt.
The Air Force described the grounding as a precaution, but said preliminary findings indicate the aircraft may have suffered a structural failure. It did not elaborate, saying the crash remains under investigation.

The Air Force said more than 700 F-15s are in its worldwide inventory, although they are being replaced by the F-22 Raptor. They have been in use since the mid-1970s.
The Air Force said it will ensure that mission requirements are met for operations normally accomplished by the fighter. F-15s fly from bases in the U.S., England, Japan and the Middle East.

Air Force spokeswoman Jennifer Bentley said Monday the F-15s will remain available for combat or anything requiring a combat response such as a terrorist attack, but otherwise they're grounded indefinitely.

"It's not a decision made lightly," Bentley said. "Until we can find out what the problem is, it's the safest thing to do."

Bentley would not speculate on how long the grounding would last.

Col. Robert Leeker, commander of the 131st Fighter Wing, said Friday the single-seat F15C Eagle that crashed had been engaged in one-on-one training fights, in which speeds of 400 to 450 mph are typical. There was no contact between the plane and its partner in the mock fight. The crashed plane was built in 1980.

The crash of an airplanes usually not depend whether it's new or old work horse, although old plane usually comprises of multitude of reason for failure, some time it's depend on luck either.