False alarm

A FORMER safety chief of a German airline has raised concerns about a cockpit warning system that frequently gives false alarms. The Ground Proximity Warning System (GPWS) alerts pilots if they are dangerously close to the ground and is used on all large commercial aircraft. Thomas Baberg, who was General Manager of Flight Safety at Lufthansa, claims that pilots “lose confidence” in the system because 95 per cent of the time it’s crying wolf (Aerospace Science Technology, vol 5, p 495). A spokesman for the British Civil Aviation Authority says that GPWS is so important that no pilot would ignore…