NVG Pilots Cautioned on LED Lights
Aircraft crews and operators must act to ensure that pilots who use night vision goggles (NVGs) avoid the light-emitting diode (LED) lights that mark some flight obstacles, the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) says.
Safety Alert for Operators (SAFO) 18010, issued by the FAA in September, notes that some LEDs cannot be seen by wearers of NVGs and cites a report by the pilot of an emergency medical services helicopter of a near miss with a tower that had been marked with LED obstruction lights. The pilot had been wearing NVGs; a crewmember who was not wearing goggles saw the tower and pointed it out to the pilot, the FAA said.
The FAA noted that it had warned in 2009, in SAFO 09007, that some LED lighting systems “fall outside the combined visible and near…
