Risks seen in airport blind spot

0 Comments | USA TODAY, April, 2007 | by Alan Levin

As United Airlines Flight 1193 touched down in Denver on Feb. 2, a snowplow blundered onto the runway in front of the speeding jet.

Up in the airport's tower, controllers were unaware of the danger. The safety system designed to track planes and vehicles on the ground never issued an alert, according to a report by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB). Luckily, the United pilots spotted the plow in time, narrowly averting a crash by jamming their brakes and coming to a full stop on the runway.

Because the runway safety system in use at large airports such as Denver has repeatedly failed to alert controllers to hazards, the Federal Aviation Administration is scrapping it and turning instead to a modernized digital version that does a better job of...