New pilot alert technology promises to avoid runway collisions

Honeywell Aerospace Technologies’ test jet was demonstrating a new frontier of runway collision technology to a group of reporters — and later to prospective customers — while the company was in Georgia for a national aviation technology conference.

The technology, known as “SURF-A” is designed to alert a pilot to an impending runway collision via audio and visual warnings. It’s not, however, designed to prevent other kinds of incidents like midair collisions or wing clips on taxiways.

While some air traffic controllers already have runway collision alert systems in their towers, it doesn’t exist in the cockpit yet. And Phoenix-based Honeywell argues the seconds it takes for a controller to get the message to a pilot, process the alert and convey it can make a crucial difference.

Credit: Emma Hurt

Credit: Emma Hurt

In Albany, as the 757 glided closer to the runway, only the trained eye would notice a smaller Honeywell plane parked purposefully in the way.

It almost blended in with the paint, Honeywell senior test pilot Kirk Vining noted to his passengers via headsets — until the alert suddenly blared into the pilots’ ears and appeared on-screen: “Traffic on runway!”

Every year, there are 1,600 to 1,800 close call incidents documented by the Federal Aviation Administration in the U.S. that this technology would help prevent, Honeywell aerospace engineer Thea Feyereisen estimated.

But in 2023, the number of more serious incidents “shot up,” she said.

Those included a near-collision between Delta Air Lines and American Airlines jets at New York’s JFK airport in January 2023 and another later that year between a Southwest Airlines and FedEx plane in Austin. A dramatic February video showed another close call between a Southwest plane and a Flexjet aircraft at Chicago’s Midway airport.

Credit: Emma Hurt

Credit: Emma Hurt

It may be surprising to the average passenger to learn that some of these systems aren’t already in place.

But the technology that enables it — essentially each plane sending out a constant GPS signal, known as ADS-B — was only required broadly by the FAA in 2020, Feyereisen said.

That has opened a whole new world of possibility in incident avoidance technology, though military aircraft are exempt.

Garmin offers a similar system to prevent aircraft collisions for smaller general aviation aircraft; Universal Avionics recently introduced a “taxi-assist” technology to help pilots navigate crowded airports leveraging ADS-B, too.

SURF-A isn’t yet certified by the FAA, but Honeywell hopes to secure that by next year.

The technology “holds the potential to be a big deal,” Andy Cebula, vice president of air traffic management and operations at industry group Airlines for America, told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Precursor technologies already on the market alert pilots if they are landing improperly — or if they are lined up on a taxiway instead of a runway. Honeywell’s versions are known as Smart X.

The National Transportation Safety Board has been recommending a requirement for similar technology for years.

Cebula was a part of an FAA rulemaking committee that recommended a mandate of the technology for all new planes — though it stopped short of recommending a retrofit of all older planes.

But even without a mandate, the technology is taking hold as fleets turn over, Cebula said.

“In the pandemic, there were a lot of older aircraft that got retired. So we have a fleet that’s increasingly new and increasingly incorporating these kinds of capabilities,” he said.

Honeywell estimates 25% of carriers are using the existing runway safety technology — which alerts pilots to improper landings.

The Air Line Pilots Association in a statement told the AJC it supports mandates of alerting systems like these and called SURF-A a technology “of particular interest.” As operators of the system, “pilots have a unique and vested interest” in the system’s modernization.

Some carriers are choosing to retrofit their fleets without a mandate.

Southwest is planning to activate Honeywell’s systems on its entire fleet by the end of the year, spokesperson Lynn Lunsford told the AJC. Alaska Airlines and Emirates are also Honeywell customers, Feyereisen said.

Delta told the AJC it “continuously evaluates new technologies that may enhance safety or supplement the procedures and systems we utilize today to manage traffic on the ground.” All its new planes are delivered with runway alerting systems, but the airline said it has “nothing to share” about retrofitting planes at the moment.

For carriers deciding to layer on new safety investments like it, Cebula said, there’s “a whole matrix that you would go through to make that decision.”

It does cost money to install, Feyereisen acknowledged. But it also is a cost to carriers in terms of more pilot training.

Carriers have to ensure there’s a “proven capability” out in the real world, Cebula said. They also need to make sure the new technology integrates with their existing, complicated cockpit systems.

“Usually, it takes a major disaster or multiple major disasters, for regulatory authorities to move out on a mandate,” Feyereisen told the AJC.

“What we’re saying is, look at the trends — can we do something before there’s a disaster? Let’s be preventative here.”