119/95

Recommendation Date
Recipient Name
Airways Corp
Text
Investigate with the equipment manufacturer the practicality of developing and incorporating a minimum safe altitude warning system (MSAW) for the Airways Corporation's AIRCAT 2000 radar system as soon as practical.
Reply Text
An investigation will be carried out to determine the following:
1. The current availability of off-the-shelf equipment which could be added on the AIRCAT 2000 to give minimum safe altitude warning alerts to ATC.
2. The cost of such equipment.
3. Specific details as to what warnings can be given and how they are triggered.
4. Details on what if any systems of this type are currently being used by other ATC service providers and their effectiveness.
5. Whether any currently available equipment, if it had been operational in the accident area, could have avoided the accident involving ZK-NEY.
6. What if any enhancements would need to be made to currently available equipment in order that it could have been used to avoid the accident.
7. The cost of any such enhancements.
8. Airways' legal liability exposure resulting from the use of such a system.
9. The New Zealand aviation industry's desire for Airways to be involved in the provision of a minimum safe altitude warning service.

This investigation has already begun with work having been completed on the first two items. We consider that it would be reasonable to expect that the investigation should be completed by 31 December 1996. It should be noted that this investigation will aim to determine the practicality of developing and incorporating a suitable facility into Airways' systems but any implementation would be entirely dependent on the findings of the investigation.
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