Does the FAA believe there are flight safety problems in Alaska? If so, is the remedy ADS-B and related technologies?
Alaska has approximately 10 percent of the nation’s air carriers. Historically, this 10 percent in Alaska generates approximately 35 percent of the nation’s air-carrier accidents. From 1994 to 1996, there were 112 such accidents in Alaska. A study indicated that 38 percent of these might have been avoided by ADS-B information displayed in the cockpit (position relative to terrain and traffic, and real-time weather). The Capstone Project validated these safety projections. The Bethel and Y-K delta area served as the initial Capstone test bed since it is served by about a quarter of Alaska’s commercial aircraft and has a proportionate number of accidents.
