BOS aircraft now have truck escort!! hA

[Diesel]

Just announced on the news that all freight operations at BOS will have a truck escort to and from the runway.

Now i realize that runway incursions suck but fedex and ups didn't have any in the list the boston herald published yesterday.

I think it's just a cheap way for them to say they are doing something.

Of course what happens if the truck has a runway incursion.

 

[viper548]

Putting more vehicles out there is definatly the answer for runway incursions.

 

[Metro752]

I bet I couldn't even get a job as a follow me truck driver. Probably requires you to be full blooded Irish or Italian with an accent, have a CDL, and swear allegience to the mayor.

 

[Moonshiner]

They can't be serious...

 

[Pugh]

That's competely stupid. I hope they only mean they will have escorts for planes being taxied by mechanics.

 

[Flying Illini]

Are they going to tie one of those "child leashes" to the plane and the truck as well? Come along Johnny, you can't be driving around out here alone! Oh Johnny, you know your pilot's license doesn't mean anything here.
Why do we have to escort you Johnny? Because, only frieght pilots screw up. The airlines have never, EVER made a mistake here, nor have any of the corporate aircraft...just you guys. No Johnny, this is permanent, especially after we ADD our sixth intersecting runway. Sure, we COULD remove some runways, and redesign the airport, but it's not our fault that BOS is the most confusing place in the world. Now get in line behind me, I don't want you to get lost.

 

[joe_pilot]

...and swear allegience to the mayor.

Not Mumbles!

 

[Diesel]

we love mumbles.

 

[HAZ-MAT]

The local newspaper up here had an article about BOS and runway incursions...
There have been four since June 9th, the last one was a FedEx plane in tow last week. They somehow towed him onto an active runway (probably 4L) while JetBlue was on a visual approach. This was 1 of 4, the other 3 were all 121 to 121 pax incursions; so who knows why its necessary for cargo planes to have the escort as opposed to 121 pax... things that make you go hmmmm...

 

[Sam Snead]

In my past experience at Boston, the best cure for 15/22 runway incursions was semi-gridlock. They would be departing 22s, and the waiting line for 22 departures would run all the way down to the terminal and ACROSS 15, so there was no question in the controller's mind that he/she could not do anything on 15.

If it got busy they would even use 15 as a taxiway for 22 departures.

The other bugaboo I observed is when they land 27 and 22 at the same time. Do they still do that?

Then there was the big LAHSO power struggle between ATC and the airlines.

 

[VNugget]

Of course what happens if the truck has a runway incursion.

Follow me trucks for the follow me trucks

 

[Diesel]

yeah they still land 22R with a lahso 27.

Another weird part is if you land 27 or 22R when you go to cross 22L they have you switch to the other twr freq and then crossing that it's over to ground.

It takes a lot of cordination to make that type of operation work.

 

[Diesel]

Airport officials unveil plan for safer runways at Logan
By Steve Leblanc, Associated Press Writer | August 10, 2005

BOSTON --New signs and closer supervision of planes as they taxi along the runways at Logan International Airport are among the safety precautions being taken following a series of incidents on Logan's intersecting runways.

Since last September, Logan has seen 12 so-called "incursions," in which planes have been cleared for takeoff only to find another aircraft blocking the runway. Only one of those was considered serious -- an incident involving two passenger jets that narrowly avoided a high-speed collision.

The most recent incursion earlier this week prompted officials from the Federal Aviation Administration and the Massachusetts Port Authority, which manages Logan, to unveil a new runway safety plan on Wednesday.

"As long as we have humans at airports we are going to have incursions," said Harry West, manager of the FAA's runway safety program for the northeast region. "What we want to prevent are the really serious events."

The safeguards include new signs that will better indicate where planes should stop. Also, Massport officials will now escort all planes being moved around the airport for maintenance.

Massport and the FAA are also summoning the chief pilots from several airlines to Logan next week to discuss the new procedures and any additional steps that could be taken to improve safety.

"We are going to put out heads together and turn this thing around," said Massport aviation director Tom Kinton.

On Monday, a FedEx cargo plane crossed the path of a JetBlue passenger jet about to take off, but air traffic controllers were able to warn the JetBlue pilots before the plane started rolling down the runway.

On a scale of A to D, that incident was a D, officials said Wednesday. But the June 9 near-collision at Logan ranked at the top of the scale.

On that day, a US Airways Jet traveling at 167 miles per hour crossed paths with an Aer Lingus plane taking off at 198 miles per hour. The two jets came within 171 feet of each another where two of Logan's runways intersect.

That and other lower-level incursions prompted aviation officials to study ways to make Logan's runways safer.

FAA and Massport officials said there are several possible culprits to blame for Logan's higher-than-average number of incursions. Nationwide the number of incursions have dropped slightly even as Logan's has spiked.

They point to the airport's cramped layout, the disruption caused by the ongoing construction of a sixth runway, and even the gradual change in the ratio of jet planes to propellor driven planes using the airport.

But unlike similar problems in the past, officials say they are unable to point to one problem at the root of the higher number of incursions.

"There is no single thing that we can get at," said Kinton.

The nation's 17th busiest airport is located on a mostly man-made peninsula jutting into Boston Harbor, with five runways, all of them intersecting. The runway now under construction will also cross the other runways.