Southwest Adopts 'Powerful Tool' to Prevent Incidents

Pilots flying with Southwest Airlines can now expect real-time alerts about their performance. In an effort to prevent runway incidents, Southwest has introduced audio and visual cockpit alerts on all of its more than 700 Boeing 737 aircraft. The system, which uses SmartRunway and SmartLanding software developed by Honeywell Aerospace Technologies (Aero), alerts pilots when they're "too fast," "too high," at the wrong altitude, on the wrong runway, or in for a "long landing," per Business Insider. "It is a really powerful tool, we believe, to add more barriers to potentially bad outcomes," Southwest COO Andrew Watterson tells the Wall Street Journal.

Aero President and CEO Jim Currier says the software allows Southwest to "put pilots and passengers first" at a time when "pilots face increasing challenges, including unpredictable weather and dense traffic in limited airspace." It's been available for years, and in some cases installed on planes but never activated, per Insider. Following a series of incidents at US airports, however, interest in the system has increased. Alaska Airlines also uses the system, which Southwest began activating in early 2024, Business Insider reports, noting neither Aero nor the airlines have said what the cost of doing so is. The FAA continues to review an advisory panel's August 2024 recommendation that cockpit alert systems be mandatory on all newly built aircraft. (More Southwest Airlines stories.)