The Mayor’s silence is deafening

Janice Hahn on LAX

An interview broadcast on LA CityView January 18, 2008

Two planes flying into Newark in near miss

Two jets arriving at Newark Liberty International Airport came too close to each other Wednesday after a regional air traffic controller gave one of the flight crews a communications frequency for the wrong control tower, a federal aviation official said yesterday.

Continental Airlines Flight 536, a Boeing 737, and Continental Express Flight 2614 came within 600 feet vertically and a mile-and-a- quarter horizontally because of the mistake, said Jim Peters, a spokesman for the Federal Aviation Administration. Flight 536 originated in Phoenix and Flight 2614 in Halifax, Nova Scotia. The incident oc curred shortly after 2 p.m.

Inspector General: Runway Lights Should Be Deployed

The FAA should move from the testing phase and start to deploy Runway Status Light systems at airports across the country, according to a new report (PDF) from the Transportation Department's Office of Inspector General. The report concludes that the lighting systems -- which provide red and green lights at runway intersections to guide pilots -- have been tested and proved useful for reducing runway incursions. The test systems gained widespread support from user groups, including pilots, pilot union officials, and managers and staff at Air Traffic Control. "All agreed that the Runway Status Light system works as intended and has no known negative impact on capacity, communication, or safety," according to the report. NTSB officials said the system is a promising technology for addressing its longstanding recommendation to provide direct warnings to pilots of potential runway conflicts.