Minimum safe altitude warning

Minimum safe altitude warning (MSAW) is an automated warning system for air traffic controllers (ATCO). It is a ground-based safety net intended to warn the controller about increased risk of controlled flight into terrain accidents by generating, in a timely manner, an alert of aircraft proximity to terrain or obstacles.[1]

Description

ICAO Doc 4444 requires that radar systems should provide for the display of safety-related alerts including the presentation of minimum safe altitude warning.[2] The radar equipment predicts an aircraft’s position in 2 minutes based on present path of flight, and the controller issues a safety alert if the projected path encounters terrain or an obstruction. An unusually rapid descent rate on a non-precision approach can trigger such an alert.[3]

It is worth mentioning that ICAO Doc 4444 does not provide a definition of the term MSAW. Instead the term MSAW is ambiguously used in ATC community to identify such warnings as well as for data processing systems providing the alert function.[citation needed]

References

  1. ^ "EUROCONTROL Specification for Minimum Safe Altitude Warning" (PDF). 0.9. Eurocontrol. 19 May 2009. Retrieved 2010-05-24.
  2. ^ Rules of the Air and Air Traffic Services. ICAO. Doc 4444-RAC/501.
  3. ^ "Chapter 2. The Air Traffic Control System". Instrument Flying Handbook (PDF) (FAA-H-8083-15B ed.). Federal Aviation Administration Flight Standards Service. 2012. p. 5. ISBN 979-8776640544. Public Domain This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.