Keeps arriving, departing flights apart

The Federal Aviation Administration last week marked the completion of construction on a new taxiway at Los Angeles International Airport that is expected to make the facility a lot safer. The new taxiway is positioned in between the airport’s two parallel runways, giving arriving planes a new way to get to the terminals without having to cross the active inner runway. “A number of serious runway incursions occurred when arriving aircraft maneuvered too close to – or onto – the inner runway in front of departing aircraft,” the FAA said. “Now, arriving aircraft have to significantly slow down and make sharp left turns onto the center taxiway before turning again onto other taxiways that lead to the gate areas.” The FAA noted that since portions of the new center taxiway went into use last summer, “there hasn’t been a single incident on the south airfield.” Besides the new taxiway, LAX is getting other safety enhancements, the FAA noted, including “runway status lights,” which warn pilots if it is unsafe to cross or enter onto a runway; and new ground surveillance radar and other data collection technology to give controllers a better real-time picture of traffic on and around the runways.