Ground proximity warning system

In the late 1960s, a series of controlled flight into terrain (CFIT) accidents took the lives of hundreds of people. A CFIT accident is one where a properly functioning airplane under the control of a fully qualified and certified crew is flown into terrain, water or obstacles with no apparent awareness on the part of the crew.[3]

Beginning in the early 1970s, a number of studies examined the occurrence of CFIT accidents.[3] Findings from these studies indicated that many such accidents could have been avoided if a warning device called a ground proximity warning system (GPWS) had been used. As a result of these studies and recommendations from the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), in 1974, the FAA required all large turbine and turbojet airplanes to install TSO-approved GPWS equipment.[3][4]

The UN International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), recommended the installation of GPWS in 1979.[5]

C. Donald Bateman, a Canadian-born engineer, developed and is credited with the invention of GPWS.[6]

In March 2000, the U.S. FAA amended operating rules to require that all U.S. registered turbine-powered airplanes with six or more passenger seats (exclusive of pilot and copilot seating) be equipped with an FAA-approved TAWS.[3] The mandate affects aircraft manufactured after March 29, 2002.[7]

Prior to the development of GPWS, large passenger aircraft were involved in 3.5 fatal CFIT accidents per year, falling to 2 per year in the mid-1970s. A 2006 report stated that from 1974, when the U.S. FAA made it a requirement for large aircraft to carry such equipment, until the time of the report, there had not been a single passenger fatality in a CFIT crash by a large jet in U.S. airspace.[8]

After 1974, there were still some CFIT accidents that GPWS was unable to help prevent, due to the "blind spot" of those early GPWS systems. More advanced systems were developed.

Older TAWS, or deactivation of the EGPWS, or ignoring its warnings when an airport is not in its database,[9] still leave aircraft vulnerable to possible CFIT incidents. In April 2010, a Polish Air Force Tupolev Tu-154M aircraft crashed near Smolensk, Russia, in a possible CFIT accident[10] killing all passengers and crew, including the President of Poland Lech Kaczyński.[11][12][13][14] The aircraft was equipped with TAWS made by Universal Avionics Systems of Tucson.[11] According to the Russian Interstate Aviation Committee, the TAWS was turned on.[15] However, the airport where the aircraft was going to land (Smolensk (XUBS)) is not in the TAWS database.[16][17] In January 2008 a Polish Air Force Casa C-295M crashed in a CFIT accident near Mirosławiec, Poland, despite being equipped with EGPWS; the EGPWS warning sounds had been disabled, and the pilot-in-command was not properly trained with EGPWS.[18]

The FAA specifications[19] have detailed requirements for when certain warnings should sound in the cockpit.

The system monitors an aircraft's height above ground as determined by a radar altimeter. A computer then keeps track of these readings, calculates trends, and will warn the flight crew with visual and audio messages if the aircraft is in certain defined flying configurations ("modes").

The modes are:

1. Excessive descent rate ("SINK RATE" "PULL UP")[Note 1]
2. Excessive terrain closure rate ("TERRAIN" "PULL UP")
3. Altitude loss after takeoff or with a high power setting ("DON'T SINK")
4. Unsafe terrain clearance ("TOO LOW – TERRAIN" "TOO LOW – GEAR" "TOO LOW – FLAPS")
5. Excessive deviation below glideslope ("GLIDESLOPE")
6. Excessively steep bank angle ("BANK ANGLE")
7. Windshear protection ("WINDSHEAR")

The traditional GPWS does have a blind spot. Since it can only gather data from directly below the aircraft, it must predict future terrain features. If there is a dramatic change in terrain, such as a steep slope, GPWS will not detect the aircraft closure rate until it is too late for evasive action.

In the late 1990s, improvements were developed and the system is now named "Enhanced Ground Proximity Warning System" (EGPWS/TAWS). The system is combined with a worldwide digital terrain database and relies on Global Positioning System (GPS) technology. On-board computers compare current location with a database of the Earth's terrain. The Terrain Display gives pilots a visual orientation to high and low points near the aircraft.

EGPWS software improvements are focused on solving two common problems: no warning at all, and late or improper response.

In commercial and airline operations, there are legally mandated procedures that must be followed should an EGPWS caution or warning occur. Both pilots must respond and act accordingly once the alert has been issued. An Indonesian captain has been charged with manslaughter for not adhering to these procedures.[20]

In 2015, Air France Flight 953 (a Boeing 777-200ER aircraft) avoided controlled flight into terrain after the EGPWS detected Mount Cameroon in the aircraft's flight path. The pilot flying immediately responded to the initial warning from the EGPWS.[21]

TAWS equipment is not required by the U.S. FAA in piston-engined aircraft, but optional equipment categorised as TAWS Type C may be installed. Depending on the type of operation, TAWS is only required to be installed into turbine-powered aircraft with six or more passenger seats.

A smaller and less expensive version of EGPWS was developed by AlliedSignal (now merged with Honeywell) for general aviation and private aircraft.[22]

For fast military aircraft, the high speed and low altitude that may frequently be flown make traditional GPWS systems unsuitable, as the blind spot becomes the critical part. Thus, an enhanced system is required, taking inputs not only from the radar altimeter, but also from inertial navigation system (INS), Global Positioning System (GPS), and flight control system (FCS), using these to accurately predict the flight path of the aircraft up to 5 miles (8.0 km) ahead. Digital maps of terrain and obstacle features are then used to determine whether a collision is likely if the aircraft does not pull up at a given pre-set g-level. If a collision is predicted, a cockpit warning may be provided. This is the type of system deployed on aircraft such as the Eurofighter Typhoon.[23] The U.S. FAA has also conducted a study about adapting 3-D military thrust vectoring to recover civil jetliners from catastrophes.[24]

On May 5, 2016, a military GPWS called Automatic Ground Collision Avoidance System (Auto-GCAS) equipped aboard an F-16 made a dramatic save after a trainee pilot lost consciousness from excessive G forces during basic fighter manoeuvre training. In an approximately 55 degree nose down attitude at 8,760 ft (2,670 m) and 652 KIAS (750 mph or 1,210 km/h), the Auto-GCAS detected the aircraft was going to strike the terrain and executed an automatic recovery, saving the pilot's life.[25]

• Acronyms and abbreviations in avionics
• Air New Zealand Flight 901
• Airborne collision avoidance systems (ACAS)
• Airport surveillance and broadcast systems
• American Airlines Flight 965
• Ansett New Zealand Flight 703, a CFIT accident associated with GPWS malfunction
• Fly-by-wire control systems
• Santa Barbara Airlines Flight 518
• South African Airways Flight 228
• TERPROM
• Traffic Collision Avoidance System (TCAS)
• TWA Flight 514
• Voice warning system

• C. Donald Bateman at the National Inventors Hall of Fame
• Garuda Captain ignores EGPWS warnings
• AeroWorldNet – 1999 EGPWS costs
• Downward Pressure on the Accident Rate—speech delivered by Nicholas A. Sabanti, FAA Associate Administrator for Aviation Safety
• Eurofighter Typhoon – BAE SYSTEMS delivers first Eurofighter Typhoon Ground Proximity Warning
• EGPWS Video Clips Archived July 1, 2014, at the Wayback Machine—Several professional video clips demonstrating enhanced GPWS.
• FlitePartners page on EGPWS installations by STC
• Boeing 727 GPWS explained with clear diagrams
• Honeywell Aerospace EGPWS Website
• Cockpit Warning Sounds—planecrashinfo.com