The European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) is warning airport operators that some of the docking systems that help guide airplanes into their assigned gates are unable to recognize aircraft with dark paint schemes; as a result, EASA recommends that authorities implement “relevant mitigating operational procedures.”
EASA’s warning was contained in Safety Information Bulletin 2018-09, issued earlier this week. The bulletin said the warning was prompted by the recent investigation of an event in which the engine of an airplane that was entering a contact stand collided with a passenger bridge, and that investigators determined that the advanced visual docking guidance system (A-VDGS) had not recognized the airplane.
The bulletin did not identify the airport and provided few details on the occurrence other than saying that the operator had encountered similar problems on other occasions.
However, news reports cited a May 2015 incident in which the engine of a Brussels Airlin…
