Ethics in Aviaton

  On January 13 th , 1982 at then Washington National Airport (now Ronald Reagan International Airport), Air Florida Flight 90 came in for a landing just before a snowstorm approached the D.C. area. The flight was the last to land before the airport shut down for a few hours due to the weather. When the airport reopened, de-icing was needed on the aircraft. De-icing is an absolutely crucial part of maintaining the safety of the aircraft during winter. The pilot stopped the de-icing procedure on the 737 before it was completed because the airport was closing.   When notification was received that the airport would be opening, the pilots decided to have the de-icing done again closer to the expected departure. After the second de-icing was done, a backlog of flights arriving and departing into National Airport caused a major traffic problem. The aircraft sat on the tarmac for an extended period of time resulting in the control surfaces of the aircraft get covered with snow again...

  It seems that this blog assignment was perfectly timed due to the problems within the National Airspace System the past couple of weeks. There were two incidents this month that caused airports in Florida and across the country to ground flights due to computer glitches. The issue that occurred in Orlando on January 2 nd was caused by an En-route Automation Modernization System (ERAM) issue.   ERAM is a system at the air traffic centers that handles incoming traffic. Then on January 9 th , the most important system in the National Airspace System crashed. The Notice to Air Missions (NOTAM) provides pilots with time critical data so they can plan accordingly for their flight.   I’m confident that anyone interested in or involved in aviation understands that there are larger issues at play here.   Is the FAA broken and what is needed to get it back on track?   It’s a complex problem to unpack for sure. NextGen is the FAAs effort to modernize the National Airs...

  Noise pollution is a big issue when talking about airport operations. The noise generated from an airport can disturb the peace of surrounding suburbs and areas. Noise can also be the source of certain health problems.  According to a study conducted by the World Health Organization, airport noise can cause lack of sleep which leads to negative changes with how the body functions. Aircraft noise has been complained about for many years, however, it reportedly worsened in 2015 when “ the FAA implemented its Next Generation Air Transportation System (NextGen) to modernize how it manages U.S. airspace. As a result of this shift, new approach and departure paths have concentrated flights over neighborhoods not previously impacted” (Cardin, 2022). Since this happened, Congress has been allocating a lot of money that is distributed through the DOT’s Airport Improvement Program (AIP). As I think about the noise pollution issue, while it might seem to make sense to institute a c...