Airports to wait for collision radar system

Sean Holstege, STAFF WRITER

Oakland and San Jose international airports will have to wait indefinitely for a radar system designed to keep airplanes from hitting each other on the ground.

Both airports had been among 15 slated to get a new radar system, but a Federal Aviation Administration panel in Washington, D.C., decided to delay the introduction because of a lack of money.

"In a perfect world, we would have the equipment at all the airports, but the reality is dollars are limited, especially in these financially constrained times," said FAA spokesman Donn Walker.

He said Congress has earmarked $100 million for the FAA's ground radars throughout the country. The system, called the Airport Surface Detection Equipment-X, or ASDE-X, costs about $3 million to install at each airport.

Air traffic controllers at the Oakland and San Jose towers say not having the latest radar is flirting with disaster. Currently, they do have an antiquated radar system that shows only blobs, but they can't tell controllers what those blobs mean.

Walker said the system can't differentiate between an airplane, a sport utility vehicle or a dog.

The ASDE-X system, which is in place at San Francisco International Airport, identifies each plane with an electronic tag, in roughly the same way controllers track planes in the sky. Without ASDE-X, controllers such as veteran Oakland tower controller Les Scott rely on eyesight. In poor weather or airports with crowded or convoluted taxiways, that can be a problem.

"It's a serious, serious issue. We're in desperate need of this equipment," said Scott, who has worked at the Oakland tower for 12 years and has been a controller for 19.

"A few years ago, we had a 747 pilot on a low-visibility night. He calls and says, 'I think I missed the turn.' We had to shut down all the taxiways and get the city to send an escort car to find him and bring him back to the terminal," he said.

Controller Mark Sherry remembered another plane getting lost. He asked the pilot what he saw. The pilot responded "I see purple." Sherry told him he was near FedEx.

Both controllers, as well as veteran San Jose tower controller Elise Streed of Livermore, say airports are getting busier again, just as large numbers of their colleagues are retiring and the number of controllers is shrinking. They say it's a recipe for a crash.

But Oakland has one of the safest records in the country, according to FAA data. Since Oct. 1, 1999, Oakland International reported just three incursions, while San Jose reported 12 and SFO 19.

An incursion is logged whenever an airplane is too close to something, according to the regulations. It rarely means a near miss, Walker said.

Aviation Director Steve Grossman said he wants the new ground radar as soon as possible but accepts that "other airports need it worse than we do. The FAA has been under extreme financial pressure in recent years."

So the FAA prioritizes the waiting list. Walker said airports are picked based on traffic volume, weather, visibility, runway layout, the type of aircraft that use the airport and other factors.

"It's good news that neither San Jose nor Oakland have a safety record or pattern that requires us to move them up the list," Walker said.

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