Designed To Minimize Runway Incursions By Support Personnel

The NTSB has had runway incursions on its "Most Wanted" list of transportation safety improvements every year since the list's inception in 1990. The FAA has similarly made "reduction in the number and severity of runway incursions" one of its top priorities. To address that issue, Garmin and a company called I.D. Technology have partnered to develop SafeNav Powered by Garmin: an on-vehicle, GPS-based navigation and alert system designed to provide airport vehicle operators with real-time situational awareness, with the goal of avoiding accidental runway incursions.

In an Advisory Circular, the FAA states:
"The control of vehicular activity on the airside of an airport is of the highest importance. The airport operator is responsible for developing procedures, procuring equipment, and providing training regarding vehicle operations to ensure aircraft and personnel safety."

SafeNav Powered by Garmin is designed to address precisely these concerns. The system enhances the situational awareness of airport vehicle operators-regardless of visibility and other external conditions-by providing an on-vehicle "moving map" of the vehicle's location on the airport.

SafeNav incorporates:

• Built-in maps of over 950 U.S. airports, based on the reference airport diagrams used by aircraft equipped with Garmin's SafeTaxi system.
• Real-time tracking of vehicle location on the airport via a 4.3-inch, wide-format, touchscreen display.
• Built-in geo-fencing algorithms to define airport runways.
• Risk-weighted color coding on maps to alert vehicle operators visually to potential runway incursions.
• Automatic audible alarming to alert vehicle operators aurally to potential runway incursions.

FMI: www.garmin.com, www.id-systems.com