O’Hare NOTAM Safety issues Critical Mass

It is a good thing that the FAA is in a constant state of flux, always looking out for the next hazard. The next one (now) is revamping air field condition notification procedures. This because of a series of close calls at O’Hare’s runway project which is in mid-process of being rebuilt.

ignorance of a (notice) concerning work in progress reducing runway length.
This because of a FED EX flight which had been routed to a shortened runway (by 4000 feet less than the pilots thought.) The Fed Ex pilots barely made it over the fence but there was damage. Boeing pilots in July 2007 had the same issue, ignorance of a shortened runway.

The problem is pilots being uninformed about disruptions due to expansion, barricades, increased maintenance vehicle traffic. A mass of NOTAM “notices to airmen” handed out as a stack of pages is not efficient. Crucial notices are mixed in with irrelevant or nonoperational data. Prioritizing crucial alerts would go a long way in making construction zones safer.


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