ATAP Software Prevents Wrong-Surface Incidents at Airports  

Aircraft crash accidents pose a higher risk of impacting lives, infrastructure, and the surroundings.

Keeping it in consideration, The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) installed a new software system at 43 major worldwide airports to prevent aircraft from crashing due to “wrong-surface landings” in which arrival planes collide with those waiting on taxiways (aircraft paths connecting runways with terminals.)

According to Axios technology, the ASDE-X Taxiway Arrival Prediction (ATAP) employs radar and other sensors that warn air traffic controllers if an inbound aircraft is lining up on a taxiway rather than a runway.

Then the Air traffic controllers will notify the pilots of incoming aircraft, preventing wrong-surface landings.

It matters a lot because around 1,641 wrong surface incidents happened from October 2016 to the end of 2022, of which 83% were civil aviation aircraft, not commercial planes.

Several other airports have a similar software called Airport Surface Surveillance Capability (ASSC), and 48 major airports with ATAP software include Boston Logan International Airport, Newark International Airport, Charlotte Douglas International Airport, and Los Angeles International Airport.

The outcomes were quite satisfying as in 2023, eight ATAP alerts have been received, and 50 wrong-surface landings have been avoided at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport since the software’s initial implementation in 2018.