WASHINGTON -- The government is proposing a regulation that would require large jet airliners to install equipment capable of detecting deadly wind shear, Transportation Secretary Elizabeth Dole announced Thursday.
Under the Federal Aviation Administration regulation to be published Friday in the Federal Register, airline flight crews would receive training in wind shear recognition and recovery procedures using the equipment, Dole said.
Wind shear is a sudden change in wind speed and direction that poses a deadly hazard especially when planes encounter it at low altitude. It has been implicated in five accidents in the last 10 years in which 536 people were killed.
The Boeing Co., manufacturer of jetliners, recently developed a wind shear training program under an FAA contract.
'Wind shear warning and flight guidance systems are available now that will constantly monitor vital flight data, such as airspeed and aircraft attitude, and alert the crew to a wind shear encounter,' Dole said in a statement. 'These systems also advise the pilots on the proper recovery procedures.'
FAA Administrator Donald Engen said his agency is working with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration in a five-year research program to develop standards for more advanced 'predictive' systems that spot wind shear in time for pilots to avoid it.
'The FAA already has approved a number of 'present position' systems that could increase a pilot's chances of successfully escaping a wind shear encounter,' Engen said. 'The flying public is entitled now to this additional protection while we work to develop even better equipment.'
The 'present position' equipment monitors the sensors that supply flight information to the cockpit to alert the crew when it has encountered wind shear.
A computer then tells the crew what to do to escape the wind shear. The proposal would require installation of the equipment on all turbine-powered aircraft operated by airlines within two years of the effective date of the final rule.
