Anticipating Next Big Earthquakes, Japan Develops Automatic Stand-by Landing Airport Designation System
Compiled from Sankei Shimbun and Mainichi Shimbun, both released on August 27 2015
Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism (MLIT) has introduced a new aviation support system to advise alternative landing airports for commercial airliners in the air for the event of large earthquake may stop operations of the original airports in Japan.
- The system will inform each aircraft of a candidate landing place individually and immediately judging from remaining fuel and other factors. This system, called Emergency Divert Flight Operations Support, will be tested in current fiscal year that will end on March 31, 2016.
- The East Japan Great Earthquake of 2011 had forced closing both of Tokyo’s main airports, Haneda and Narita, at once and a total of 86 aircraft heading for there had to alter destinations. Among them, 14 aircraft, as their remaining fuel was too low, declared emergency, calling for quick reactions from the ground, according to MLIT.
- Current system takes longer time and manpower as the ground control has to ask fuel remaining for each aircraft by voice radio while checking the conditions of alternative airport for any damage by telephone.
- However, the new system will calculate the remaining fuel volume from the original fuel amount at take-off and the location of the aircraft when a natural disaster occurs. As each airport will input its damage report to the system, it will divert each aircraft to most appropriate airport with consideration of priority while the information will be shared with airline companies.
- MLIT, with assumption of the worst case, a simultaneous earthquakes of Nankai Trough and Tokyo Direct Hit happening on noon of a weekday when air traffic over Japan reaches its peak. MLIT’s simulation assumed eight airports from Narita to Miyazaki will be closed at once. This simulation showed 133 aircraft would be in the air that will need immediate traffic control.
