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APRIL 2014 • AviationPros.com 19 RAMP SAFETY Short for foreign object debris left be- hind on airport runways, taxiways and aprons, the fragments pose a signifcant problem that leads to damages in the bil- lions of dollars for airports and airlines every year. Left untouched or unnoticed, these three letters can represent another word too—Disaster. On July 25, 2000, a metal strip de- tached from a Continental Airlines plane and fell on the runway at Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport. This debris punctured the tire of a departing Air France Concord jet spewing bits of rubber into the air, some of which punctured the aircraft's fuel tanks causing the plane to crash shortly after take-off, killing 113 people. In the years since, Charles de Gaulle installed an automated FOD detection system from Xsight Systems, headquar- tered in Boston, MA, to supplement the manual checks already being performed. Airports in Tel Aviv and Bangkok have also followed suit, according to Arik Fux, head of Xsight's U.S. offce. And in November, Boston Logan Inter- national Airport unveiled a $1.7 million FODetect system on 09-27, the airport's busiest, 7,000-foot-long runway. This installation is the frst of its kind in the United States. "We are honored to be se- lected for this installation, 13 years after the Concord crash," says Fux. "Massport (the Massachusetts Port Authority) is very proactive in adding cutting-edge technology that helps keep the airport as safe as possible." The FA A funded $900,000 of the project through the Airport Technology Research Program, under an agreement that enabled Massport to provide the re- maining funding and procure the Xsight technology. The agreement also calls for a one-year-study to evaluate the safety ben- efts of the automated detection system versus traditional FOD best practices, reports the FAA. Three Letters That Can Spell Big Problems A t airports, there are three letters that spell big problems: FOD. FOD: Boston Logan International Airport addresses potential FOD problems head on as it becomes the frst U.S. airport to adopt an automated FOD detection system By Ronnie L. Garrett gsm_19-21_RampSafety_V3.indd 19 4/9/14 3:53 PM