ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, July 16, 1996 TAG: 9607160072
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-3 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: WASHINGTON
SOURCE: Knight-Ridder/Tribune
The Charlotte airport, which handles more than 1,200 takeoffs and landings each weekday, is operating with a $5 million radar wind-detection system that has failed repeatedly since its installation in December, Federal Aviation Administration officials said Monday.
The sophisticated new radar, called Terminal Doppler Weather Radar, has been hailed as the solution to the dangerous wind shears that have caused more than 18 major crashes since 1970, killing more than 575 people. The most recent wind-shear crash was in Charlotte in 1994, when 37 people died.
If the Doppler Radar detects a wind shear over the airport, it sets off an alarm that allows controllers to relay precise information to pilots about wind shears as they are developing. Pilots then can take evasive action before they find themselves snared in a wind shear.
Since Dec. 22, Charlotte's new Terminal Doppler Weather Radar has gone out of service about twice a month, the FAA said.
The failures have lasted from several minutes to more than four days. There's no guarantee that there won't be more failures.
``I can't predict the future; we don't have a crystal ball,'' said FAA spokesman Fraser Jones.
USAir uses the Charlotte airport as a transfer facility, or hub, for millions of passengers each year. The airport is also used by American, Delta, United, Continental and Northwest airlines.
FAA officials said the causes of the Charlotte outages were varied. They include communication problems between the radar tower and the airport, loss of electric power to the radar site, radar motor problems and unspecified hardware failures.
The reliability of Terminal Doppler is particularly crucial during the summer months, when the frequency of thunderstorms in the Charlotte area is at its highest.
Thunderstorms generate wind conditions known as wind shear, a sudden change in wind direction that can cause an airplane to drop hundreds of feet. Wind shear is particularly dangerous to low-flying planes that are taking off or landing.
In July 1994, a wind shear from a thunderstorm felled a USAir DC-9 from Columbia, S.C. making a landing at the Charlotte airport. Thirty-seven people died; 20 survived, including the five-person crew.
The most recent Charlotte outage was last week, said FAA air traffic manager Eric Harrell.
LENGTH: Medium: 53 linesby CNB