=20 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- This article was sent to you by someone who found it on SFGate. The original article can be found on SFGate.com here: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=3D/n/a/2005/11/03/state/n021= 136S27.DTL --------------------------------------------------------------------- Thursday, November 3, 2005 (AP) LA airport to get improved ground radar system (11-03) 02:11 PST Los Angeles (AP) -- Los Angeles International Airport, which has one of the nation's highest rates of runway safety violations, will be among 15 facilities to receive new technology aimed at averting potential airfield collisions, federal officials said. Aviation officials said Wednesday that the new ground radar system will help prevent planes from getting too close to one another by giving air traffic controllers precise information about their locations on the airfield. The system should be operating at LAX sometime next year. "This will be a much more powerful set of eyes for controllers to see things that now can't be seen and to identify specifically what they are," said Donn Walker, a Federal Aviation Administration spokesman. Mike Foote, the air traffic controllers union representative at LAX, said the system will improve efficiency more than safety. Still, he said LAX controllers are happy they'll be getting the $8 million system. "It's about time," he said. "This will help with traffic flow and dealing with aircraft in cargo alleyways — especially where we can't see them." Controllers and managers at Northern California airports have said they believe the system will help improve safety. LAX ranked sixth among the nation's 25 busiest commercial airports for runway safety violations between Oct. 1, 2004, and Sept. 30 of this year, newly released statistics show. Most of the problems occur because arriving aircraft have to cross runways to get to their gates. None resulted in accidents. John Wayne Airport in Orange County and Long Beach Airport ranked second and third, respectively. Boston's Logan International Airport ranked first. LAX's existing ground radar system displays objects as blobs on a monochromatic screen and doesn't distinguish between a person, a vehicle and an aircraft. The new technology — Airport Surface Detection Equipment, Model X, or ASDE-X — will show that an object is an aircraft and identify the airline and flight number. The system could cost $505 million to develop and install at 38 U.S. airports. ___ Information from: Los Angeles Times, www.latimes.com --------------------------------------------------------= -------------- Copyright 2005 AP