The Land, Infrastructure and Transport Ministry will make it mandatory for passenger planes to carry an integrated warning system to prevent crashes into high terrain, ministry officials said Thursday.
The ministry is considering introducing an intensified ground proximity warning system that can automatically detect and warn pilots about approaching mountains and cliffs.
The intensified system uses a database with configurations for about 95 percent of the Earth's surface. The current GPWS, developed in the early 1970s, uses radio waves to monitor the ground directly beneath an airplane and is unable to detect obstructions directly ahead.
The new system is expected to allow pilots to monitor such obstructions using the terrain database, global positioning system and constant displays on a screen in the cockpit. Once danger is detected, the new system automatically calculates the time to impact and issues voice and visual warnings, according to the officials.
By introducing the new system, the ministry hopes to prevent aircraft from crashing into terrain. "Controlled flight into terrain" accidents often occur in poor visibility caused by bad weather or during night flights, the ministry reckoned.
The ministry aims to revise the Aviation Law by March 2002, in accordance with an American policy making it mandatory for passenger aircraft to carry such a system.
Some Japan Airlines and All Nippon Airways planes already have the new system on board, as Boeing Co. has included it as standard equipment in aircraft produced since 1998.
Boeing introduced the system after an American Airlines jetliner crashed into the Andes Mountains in Colombia in 1995, killing 160 passengers and crew.