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The FAA has been attempting to modernize their air traffic control stations with GPS technology, and may have helped prevent a collision on the tarmac recently. The project is called “NextGen” and its goal is to completely overhaul air traffic management. By 2020, the FAA intends to have an accurate GPS network tracking all of the planes in US airspace.

With the current technology, there is a ten-second delay. This may not seem like much, but when you consider that planes are flying at speeds of hundreds of miles per hour, ten seconds can make a huge difference. The GPS tracking technology on the airplanes will make this ten second delay obsolete.

Bill Voss, former FAA air traffic director and president of the Flight Safety Foundation, told CNN that the new GPS tracking technology aided in preventing a  disaster collision at John F. Kennedy Airport in New York on April 11.

Even still, with the increasingly adept technology, air traffic controllers often simply use their eyes to track planes. “You’d be surprised — almost all of this is done with pieces of paper, an eyeball and a pencil,” Voss told CNN. An investigation into the incident is ongoing, yet most critics believe that it is an affirmation of the FAA’s plan to modernize air traffic control.

Article Written by Greg Minton