september2021 - 14

INDUSTRY EXPERT
COLUMN
Optimizing Aviation Efficiency and
Safety When Severe Weather Strikes
With the correct technology, airport personnel can measure and detect severe
weather and take proactive steps to minimize disruptions and ensure safety.
By Timo Lindfors
W
hen you're responsible for ensuring
safe and efficient takeoffs and landings,
inclement weather is not your friend.
From thunderstorms and snowstorms
to heavy winds, rain, fog and ice, severe weather events
can create potentially hazardous conditions that cause
cost-prohibitive, inconvenient delays and put lives at risk.
Whether developing suddenly or slowly, inclement
conditions are, according to the Federal Aviation
Administration, by far, the largest cause of flight
delays. In fact, inclement weather causes nearly 70
percent of all flight delays of greater than 15 minutes
in an average year. Worse yet, while human error is the
most common cause of accidents, weather is a primary
contributing factor in nearly 25 percent of all aviation
accidents, with a National Transportation Safety Board
study revealing more than two-thirds of all weather-related
general aviation crashes have been fatal.
No matter where in the world an airport is located,
severe weather conditions can complicate how air
traffic controllers, pilots and airport personnel
decide to maintain the safety and efficiency of airport
operations.
How Severe Weather Impacts Daily
Operations and Personal Safety
Given the busy nature of airports, efficient daily operations
are essential while ensuring travelers fly safely
to their destinations. Understandably, at airports of all
sizes across the globe, severe weather can have a dramatic
impact on both these factors. Let's take a look at
some of the most common severe weather phenomena
affecting aviation.
LIGHTNING
Lightning strikes can cause serious injuries and even
death to fliers and airport/airline personnel, damage
aircraft, interfere with avionics, shut down engines
and even incapacitate pilots.
Complicating the issue, many airports don't effectively
monitor lightning or mitigate its impact. Some
smaller airports use audible thunder to indicate the
presence of lightning in the area, while most others
employ basic single-point sensors that are challenged
to communicate a storm's precise location or classify
in-cloud versus cloud-to-ground strikes. Beyond
uncertain lightning information, disparate safety
procedures and warning criteria hamstring airport
operations because notifications alerting personnel
when to halt operations and move to shelter, as well
as when it is safe to resume, can be inconsistent.
WIND SHEAR
Wind shear - or the sudden change in the direction
or velocity of wind - most commonly impacts aviation
in the form of delays, cancellations and diversion
of flights to alternative airports, but it can also
quickly create dangerous situations during takeoff
and landing.
Whether landing or taking off, large commercial
aircraft must be able to avoid drastic disruptions to
their flight paths caused by one of the most dangerous
- and difficult to assess - weather phenomena
in aviation. Even though winds alone are rarely the
cause of accidents, wind shear remains a persistent
risk because it takes place at a height, and under flying
conditions, when planes are most vulnerable.
Since wind shear puts lives at risk and can lead to
crippling financial damages, airports need to reliably
perceive wind shear dangers, alert the appropriate
personnel and take action before accidents happen.
14 GROUND SUPPORT WORLDWIDE SEPTEMBER 2021
Photo courtesy of AirTeamImages
september2021

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