National Transportation Safety Board

“ We're going to establish a process where we can by automation tools build new digital terrain maps every 28 days. We've already contracted with -- with NOAA to put a piece of equipment on line that can generate these digital terrain maps for us. And we can just pull 'em down and -- and compare for any changes, and if there are any changes we'll just build a whole new map and send it out to the facility each month.
Every year we -- we plan to review every site -- excuse me. We also are going to be reviewing every new and amended standard intimate approach procedure to check for any obstacles. ”

“ Yes, we have. As Mr. Howell described to you, our plans for -- for future configuration management of software built for MSAW as an interim measure, we've -- my office has sat down jointly with Air Traffic Operations. We've come up with a list of -- of questions which we now pose to automation specialists within a facility to try to measure compliance. I'll be candid and tell you it's -- it's not a perfect system and that's why we're working towards one of -- of tighter configuration management because it's going to be the only -- the only solid cure to what we're trying to achieve. ”

“ It's an enormously, enormously important issue for those of us who are involved in the aviation safety business to be dealing with, and it's something that I personallyspend a great deal of my time working on and something that the industry I think is more and more focusing on as one of the real places where we can make gains in safety.
So, we'll be talking here about a number of issues that relate to controlled-flight-into-terrain. These include issues that can be dealt with by airlines, by air traffic control authorities, by equipment manufacturers. ”

“ You have nautical miles across the bottom to the airport. You have altitude in feet above sea level, not above the ground.
And you will see in this animation the airplane as it begins its trek into the localizer flight path and then proceeds towards the airport. At the same time, you will see what it is doing in the vertical and you will watch the airplane as it comes through the various altitudes on its flight profile all the way to the impact point.
All of this information was derived from radar data that was accumulated and the flight datarecorder data from the aircraft. ”

“ Issue a safety alert to an aircraft if you are aware the aircraft is in a position slant altitude which in your judgment places it in unsafe proximity to terrain, obstructions, or other aircraft. Once the pilot informs you action is being taken to resolve the situation, you may discontinue the issuance of further alerts. Do not assume that because someone else has responsibility for the aircraft that the unsafe situation has been observed and the safety alert issued. Inform the appropriate controller. ”

“ When we change our tapes in the morning we do tape checks. With that we've added where we would tell the time that it is when we do it. That is with the crash phone, and that's at the request of the ramp control supervisor and airport rescue and fire-fighting -- fire chief to help them until they can come up withfurther procedures for times.
MR. WENTWORTH: Is there any procedure for the controller to call an entity other than the Airport Authority or the crash/fire/rescue station on the airport in the event of an off-base or off-airport accident? ”

“ Does the Air Traffic Servicehave any quality assurance program in place other than facility evaluations that should have detected these chronic MSAW problems?
THE WITNESS: There are basically three evaluations-type processes in effect in Air Traffic Service. One is the one that I manage, which looks at air traffic operational issues. Airways Facilities has a similar effort underway for compliance to national standards for hardware and so on and so forth. And then AOS maintains a separate quality assurance role in assuring the quality of the -- of the software that they develop. ”

“ Is there any intention of providing the oral alarm capability through their currents ARTS IIA system prior to the installation of the IIE?
THE WITNESS: Technically, again, this is outside of my area of expertise. As I understand the way the system is built, the technical capabilities of the system, it cannot provide that oral alarm directly to two different airports as a primary, only to one primary. And Agana is the secondary airport in that system, so it cannot be adapted to do that. That's why Common ARTS is necessary to provide that to all of themin the ARTS II environment. ”

“ If a radar controller inadvertently cleared an aircraft to operate below the minimum IFR altitude for the area it was in in close proximity to either terrain or obstructions, please describe the various ways that error might be brought to their attention. ”

“ With what frequency at the facility do power outages occur?
THE WITNESS: They happen quite often. Power outages or power hits. It's very common.
MR. WENTWORTH: And when you lose commercial power, what happens? Do you have back-up capability?
THE WITNESS: We have several different backup capabilities. Different components that we have has battery pack. We have a UPS system connected to several items in the tower. And the whole tower is on a generator back-up that is automatic. As soon as it -- we lose power that starts up. ”

“ THE WITNESS: No. We did not evaluate the Guam CERAP automation functions nor do we evaluate the automation functions of any air traffic facility. Our evaluation focuses simply on operational effectiveness and compliance.
MR. DUNHAM: So, the automation section of the checklist that they use to do an evaluation actually accomplishes what?
THE WITNESS: No, the items contained in the evaluations portion of the checklist -- and incidentally, that has been modified just as a clerical point since -- since this accident -- are rudimentary at best. ”

“ Prior to that time, the local facilities were left with just a guidance of -- of adapting it. An --an example might be there -- when they're told how to adapt an eligibility area it could be zero to 60 miles. Now we have developed a standard and said that it's got to be a minimum of five miles beyond your approach air space. It can't be any -- and it's got to -- it can't -- it's got to start at the airport. So, we've really nailed down the standards and we've -- we've testified some nominal values, and if they deviate from those nominal values it's going to require a waiver. ”

“ Whenever they make changeseither in aircraft or places that they're -- they want to go, they're supposed to submit changes to us and we have to keep their op specs updated.
They're -- as I mentioned, the inspections that we do are set forth in our annual work program, and we are required by our annual work program, the NPG, to do a station facility inspection, a trip records inspection, a ramp inspection, and depending on the airport, a de-icing inspection if it's one of those that's located in the northern part of the country for each airport within the U.S. that that airline operates to. ”

“ In the terminal environment there are two different types of processing that we'll talk about. One is general terrain warning and the other is approach path monitoring.
However, both of these types of processing require certain things to be present before the aircraft will be eligible for MSAW processing. It must be a tracked target. That is, a flight plan must be entered into the system. It must have a valid mode Cor altitude reporting. It must be within the adapted eligibility area. It must be outside any inhibit zones. ”

“ And also, in your experience as a controller, do you operate with the daily anticipation -- in other words, is it your expectation that flight crews that are coming into your air space will comply with the FARs by familiarizing themselves with NOTAMs and equipment outages affecting their flight? ”

“ The foreign government civil aviation authorities of whatever country we're talking of.
CAPTAIN MISENCIK: Just backtracking a little, when you were providing oversight at the time of the accident for Korean Air and all of the other carriers, how many airplanes normally were -- would you estimate that that included at that time?
THE WITNESS: You mean how many aircraft? That's -- my airlines have?
CAPTAIN MISENCIK: Yes.
THE WITNESS: I have no idea. It's quite a few.
CAPTAIN MISENCIK: Okay. Do you have any oversight responsibility regarding ground and flight training at all with foreign carriers? ”

“ In the area of general terrain monitoring we've got three different types of alerts or alarms that may be presented to the controller. The first one would be the current alarm. Any time an aircraft is presently less than 500 feet above the digital terrain map it will automatically generate an alarm.
We also have prediction alarms. When the pilot would be less than 500 feet above the digital terrain map within 30 seconds -- in advance of the flight course within 30 seconds of the flight trajectory. ”

“ The published approach procedure for the ILS to runway 6-left with the glide slope inoperative depicts a series of step-down altitudes that the pilot is required to maintain during the execution of the approach. What you will see is the step-down altitudes which will ensure sufficient terrain and obstacle clearance. ”

“ These alerts are generated in two forms: a visual alert that will be displayed to the controller as a -- a L -- flashing LA in the data block or -- I should say and an oral alert. The oral alert is much like a smoke detector type of alert.
It must be specifically adapted at each one of our 193 Automated Radar Terminal Systems. Each site around the country and in the Pacific and -- and Caribbean that use the Automated Radar Tracking System has special site tripography that has to be included in the adaptation, a local database. ”

“ The cut-off altitude will be based on any obstructions or the MDA. And we're -- for this purposes, if there's obstructions we will use the MDA minus 100 feet for the lowest non-precision approach for that runway.
It comes into the airport inhibit area, which is normally within one mile of the airport. At some point you have to stop this processing 'cause eventually everybody, we hope, is going to land successfully. So, anything within one mile we find generates a tremendous amount of nuisance alerts. ”

“ Under such a circumstances at the control tower when you have to clear the aircraft to land, let's saywhen the outer marks are not working but you would still clear ILS approach or a localizer approach? In other words, I believe you should have at your control tower something you can use to confirm whether outer marks are working or not. That's the point of my question.
THE WITNESS: Sir, we don't clear 'em for ILS approaches. That's done by Guam CERAP. We only clear them to land after they have their clearance for the approach. ”

“ Again, the -- the range of numbers varies depending upon the size of the facility and the commensurate levels of work to be accomplished. Evaluators themselves are selected into this organization from among active air traffic control specialists. Typically, only those who have attained at least the rank of first-line supervisor. So in fact we're -- we're selecting individuals who have already distinguished themselves as -- as excellent controllers in the first place. We try to maintain a mix of those who specialize in the en route terminal and flight service options. ”

“ As you know, this is a hearing -- public hearing which is part of our process on an aircraft accident on August 6th, 1997, in Agana, Guam involving Korean Air Flight 801.
The purpose of the hearing is to supplement the factual record of this accident investigation for the NTSB. We thus have the NTSB witnesses, we have party witnesses, and we have some outside witnesses. All of these people have technical expertise to be able to bring to the factual portion of this investigation. ”

“ In the case of a go-around, since it is VFR while staying visual and turning to the right request a radar vector. Since the localizer glide slope is out, the minimum descent altitude is 560 feet and the height above touchdown is 304 feet."
At the conclusion of this briefing, a short time later at 01:22, the Guam CERAP controller informed Flight 801 that the Automatic Terminal Information Service or ATIS report, which is a prerecorded report of the weather conditions at Guam were as follows: that the current weather was uniform and that the current altimeter setting was 29.86. ”

“ We realized that there is -- there is the potential for being too close to topics being employed in the same organization. However, we feel that that is more than adequately balanced by the fact that we can maintain a work force of fresh, current people who are -- are capable of evaluating today's current issues in air traffic. ”

“ We would not have been unless we were alerted by facility personnel. Software in --in the automation systems used by air traffic controllers, quality assurance is assured through configuration management, and I have no -- neither the expertise nor the methodology to go in and check those systems. ”

“ MR. DUNHAM: Okay. At that time the Safety Board asked the FAA to "conduct a complete national review of all radar environments using MSAW systems. This review should address all user-defined site variables for the MSAW programs that control general terrain warnings as well as runway capture boxes to ensure compliance with prescribed procedures."
As someone familiar with MSAW systems, is the meaning and intent of this recommendation clear to you?
THE WITNESS: It is to me.
MR. DUNHAM: Okay. Did the FAA conduct a review in response to that safety recommendation? ”

“ In the development of the replacement systems for the ARTS programs, the common ARTS, which is now under way, and soon to be the STARS system, we hope, is your office working with these programs to make sure that all these improvements that you've made in the ARTS II and ARTS III systems will be maintained and promulgated? ”

“ When the team put in the revised adaptation, did they have to make any program changes to the ARTS IIA system?
THE WITNESS: Not that I'm aware of.
MR. DUNHAM: Okay. So, there was no technical reason that the adaptation they put in after the accident could not have been used prior to the accident?
THE WITNESS: Not that I'm aware of.
MR. DUNHAM: Are there any inhibited areas in the current effective latest version of the Guam adaptation?
THE WITNESS: No volume inhibit areas. There's some departure inhibit areas that are a couple miles from the airport, which is a routine thing. ”

“ The next area of MSAW alert processing is the approach path monitor. Again, any current violationsof the air space will provide an alert to the controller. On the prediction the pilot is projected to be 100 feet below the calculated approach path alarm slope altitude within the next 15 seconds.
Approach path monitors are used to transition aircraft from general terrain monitoring to the airport. These approach path monitor boxes are generally one mile either side of runway center line. They initiate generally five miles from the end of the runway. ”

“ Howell testified to, so that in the future where we have to -- to respond and -- and describe the -- the state of the system in such complex systems we will use a similar process to that which we have described here where necessary.
There are some circumstances with less complex issues where such a polling can get a rapid, quick response of the status of individual items. In those cases we will continue to use that kind of process. What we will do is -- is exercise better judgment as to which of the tools works well under the particular circumstance we're trying to respond to. ”

“ Had the glide slope portion of the ILS been working -- the glide slope projects an invisible radio beam at about a three degree angle projected upward, which once the airplane intercepts that glide slope electronically, the flight crew then would follow its instruments. As long as the airplane was on the glide slope it would bring it down to the runway at a -- at a -- approximately three-degree angle, which would clear all of this terrain. ”

“ If the Guam Tower controller theoretically had used the D-BRITE facility in your judgment -- I'm not sure if we're asking the right person -- but would this have been a breach of FAA regulations since it was not commissioned? And if that's not a fair question, you don't have to answer it.
THE WITNESS: I -- I would respond and say that -- that we do not allow the use of non-certified air traffic equipment as -- as we wouldn't allow someone to fly a non-certified aircraft. ”

“ Generally speaking, the elements of the clearance are aircraft call sign, aircraft position, perhaps a vector, an altitude to maintain -- until established on the final approach course, and then any appropriate remarks -- including the approach clearance.
MR. WENTWORTH: And would you explain for us on the long-range radar are any of the elements of the ILS to runway 6-left at Guam depicted, such as the outer marker or the extended center line for the runway? ”