Because some light-emitting diode (LED) obstruction lights cannot be seen by wearers of night vision goggles (NVGs), crews and aircraft operators must take additional steps to ensure that pilots avoid obstacles marked with LEDs, the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) says.
Safety Alert for Operators (SAFO) 18010, issued earlier in September, cited the recent report by the pilot of an emergency medical services helicopter of a near miss with a tower that had been marked with LED obstruction lighting. 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-infrared spectrum of NVGs and thus will not …
