Joe responds to Iler on safety at the Island Airport
Mr. Iler,
I commend your thorough response to this issue.
Your opening paragraph is 100% correct.
With regards to the 2007 Richmond crash, the pilot was 82 years old and had 3 previous crashes PRIOR to his last one. This does not preclude a similar event from happening in Toronto but consider that Vancouver airport has about 6 times the traffic of the TCCA.
With respect to runway lengths - you quote "Transport Canada’s own Canadian Runway Friction Index (CRFI)recommends that a safe landing distance of 1741 metres is required for a turbo prop." The CRFI is used when a runway is not considered bare and dry and braking would be compromised by the condition of the runway. The CRFI is expressed as a decimal value equating to the relative braking a pilot can expect. Therefore, the Transport quote is irrelevant without the corresponding CRFI value that makes the length requirement = 1741M. There are occasions where the runway condition and associated CRFI values are too low to allow operations and this is relayed to flight crews by the tower in a timely manner.
Of course ultra long runways would be nice but they are useless if, as Air France proved, the aircraft lands beyond the midpoint of the runway.
I agree that Runway safety areas & runways should be as long as possible and I suspect the reason that these safety factors are recommendations and not requirements are likely financial (as you also pointed out). Most airports do not meet the recommended safety area lengths and modifications to do so would be very costly.
With respect to emergency access, I believe the new larger ferries are capable of handling all relevant types of response vehicles unlike the older and smaller ferries. This does not replace the bridge but in any emergency, the ferry is immediately sent to the city side to await any emergency vehicles.
On bird strikes - no question the TCCA has "extensive bird activity".
Mr. Iler, thanks again for your input on this important matter. I merely wanted airport area residents to understand that the airport is not always to blame when there is an accident.
Take Care!
Joe
I commend your thorough response to this issue.
Your opening paragraph is 100% correct.
With regards to the 2007 Richmond crash, the pilot was 82 years old and had 3 previous crashes PRIOR to his last one. This does not preclude a similar event from happening in Toronto but consider that Vancouver airport has about 6 times the traffic of the TCCA.
With respect to runway lengths - you quote "Transport Canada’s own Canadian Runway Friction Index (CRFI)recommends that a safe landing distance of 1741 metres is required for a turbo prop." The CRFI is used when a runway is not considered bare and dry and braking would be compromised by the condition of the runway. The CRFI is expressed as a decimal value equating to the relative braking a pilot can expect. Therefore, the Transport quote is irrelevant without the corresponding CRFI value that makes the length requirement = 1741M. There are occasions where the runway condition and associated CRFI values are too low to allow operations and this is relayed to flight crews by the tower in a timely manner.
Of course ultra long runways would be nice but they are useless if, as Air France proved, the aircraft lands beyond the midpoint of the runway.
I agree that Runway safety areas & runways should be as long as possible and I suspect the reason that these safety factors are recommendations and not requirements are likely financial (as you also pointed out). Most airports do not meet the recommended safety area lengths and modifications to do so would be very costly.
With respect to emergency access, I believe the new larger ferries are capable of handling all relevant types of response vehicles unlike the older and smaller ferries. This does not replace the bridge but in any emergency, the ferry is immediately sent to the city side to await any emergency vehicles.
On bird strikes - no question the TCCA has "extensive bird activity".
Mr. Iler, thanks again for your input on this important matter. I merely wanted airport area residents to understand that the airport is not always to blame when there is an accident.
Take Care!
Joe
Comments