Forum Communications’ Intelligent Peripherals were developed to bring additional functionality to enhance the Alert and Consortium product lines. These peripherals were initially designed to support the Alert Emergency Notification System and now many have been modified to support the ConsortAlert Emergency Notification System, where appropriate.
The Runway and Alert Display (RAD) feature was designed to go with Forum’s IP-based ConsortAlert Emergency Notification System. It provides the ATC tower personnel with the ability to instantly relay the location of an incident and the alert category of the incident to the ARFF personnel in the fire station. This feature includes the RAD panel, as well as a RAD tablet, a small kiosk mode tablet with a Runway designation soft button user interface page that contains the runway locations as buttons that once chosen creates a pop-up menu with the Alert types 1, 2 or 3 to choose. The RAD tablet is usually located in the ATC tower but can also be located in the airport operations center. The RAD panel is typically mounted near the bay door exit in the ARFF fire station. The diagram below shows the configuration for this feature.
The tower tablet displays the airport runways and once you choose the runway location, pop-up screens will guide you through the Alert categories and confirmation. This interface page can be customized to match your airport runway topology.
The runway locations are shown for each airport runway.
Once the runway incident location is determined and chosen, a pop-up window with the Alert 1, 2, & 3 categories is displayed
Once the Alert category is chosen, a pop-up confirmation window with the runway location and Alert category is displayed, allowing the Air Traffic Controller to validate their Runway and Alert selection before sending.
Aircraft emergencies are broken down into three categories: Alert 1, Alert 2 and Alert 3. These categories are defined by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to provide standard descriptions and terminology for aircraft emergencies and they are defined as follows;
Alert 1:
Indicates an aircraft is having minor difficulties (i.e., minor oil leak; one engine out on a three or four-engine commercial aircraft or one engine out on a two-engine general aviation aircraft; fire warning lights; etc.). A safe landing is expected.
Alert 2:
Indicates that an aircraft is having major difficulties (i.e., a positive indication of fire on board the aircraft; faulty landing gear; no hydraulic pressure; engine failure on a two-engine large aircraft; etc.). A difficult or crash landing may be expected.
Alert 3:
Indicates that an aircraft has crashed on or off the airport, or there is a high probability the aircraft will crash, or the pilot has indicated that the aircraft landing gear will not work and, therefore, the pilot will have to crash land on the airport.
The Alert category is not only used to indicate who and what vehicles will respond to the incident but also the ARFF staging locations along the runway that they need to be at.
As one can understand, the runway location and Alert category information is critical to the accuracy and speed of the response team. Displaying this information on a RAD panel for each incident is extremely valuable for the ARFF personnel especially when the noise of overhead airplanes, bay doors opening and fire trucks firing up drowns out the PA system. A visual display of this information at the exit of the fire station ensures timely and accurate responses.
Alert 1: Indicates an aircraft is having minor difficulties (i.e., minor oil leak; one engine out on a three or four-engine commercial aircraft or one engine out on a two-engine general aviation aircraft; fire warning lights; etc.). A safe landing is expected.
Alert 2: Indicates that an aircraft is having major difficulties (i.e., a positive indication of fire on board the aircraft; faulty landing gear; no hydraulic pressure; engine failure on a two-engine large aircraft; etc.). A difficult or crash landing may be expected.
Alert 3: Indicates that an aircraft has crashed on or off the airport, or there is a high probability the aircraft will crash, or the pilot has indicated that the aircraft landing gear will not work and, therefore, the pilot will have to crash land on the airport.
