Ground Anti-Collision Systems
Large airplanes should be equipped with an external-mounted camera system or other anti-collision aid to help pilots determine wingtip clearance while taxiing, the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) says.
In safety recommendations to the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and the European Aviation Safety Agency, the NTSB said that the agencies should require the anti-collision aids, which would provide a cockpit indication of wingtip positions, on “all newly manufactured and newly type-certificated large airplanes and other airplane models where the wingtips are not easily visible from the cockpit.”
The agencies also should require the retrofitting of such equipment on existing large airplanes and others with wingtips that cannot easily be seen from the cockpit, the NTSB said.
In issuing the recommendations, the NTSB said that, since 1993, it has investigated 12 taxiing accidents — including three currently under inv…
