Blunting the Threat

Controlled flight into terrain (CFIT) is one of the major destroyers of airplanes and killers of people, but where the latest ground proximity warning systems have been widely installed, unintended impacts with ground or water are much less likely, according to Don Bateman, flight safety systems chief engineer for Honeywell International [NYSE: HON]. Honeywell is one of the leading suppliers of enhanced ground proximity warning systems (EGPWS). The technology has been deployed in some 70 percent of western-built large jets and 40 percent of regional airliners.

"The CFIT risk is now 50 times less in North America, Europe and Australasia since 1991," Bateman said.

Over the 12 year period since 1991, 53 large jets and more than 3,000 people have been lost to CFIT crashes, Bateman recounted. However, the risk has declined with the deployment of EGPWS - down to about one CFIT accident for every 98 million flights. In those regions where a smaller fraction of aircraft have been outfitted with EGPWS, the risk of a CFIT accident is substantially higher. Bateman said the CFIT risk in Latin America and Africa is six times higher than in Europe and North America.

EGPWS reliability is improving steadily. Bateman recounted that in 1996 ground proximity warnings were sounding at the rate of 3.10 per thousand flights. The warning rate per thousand flights today is 0.148. That works out to about a 20-fold improvement in reliability.

>> Bateman, e-mail c.don.bateman@honeywell.com <<