Terrain awareness and warning system (TAWS) technology — with significant enhancements scheduled to debut in December 20161 — enables flight crews to escape from imminent controlled flight into terrain (CFIT) so reliably that subject matter experts remind the aviation community of other risk mitigations. One is to combine the last-chance technology with preventive flight planning strategies, standard operating procedures (SOPs) and training. For TAWS itself, the reminders are to continually update equipment with the latest software; keep the terrain/obstacle/runway database current; install global positioning system (GPS) receivers; activate geometric altitude; and train flight crews to select at least one side of the display in the terrain mode.
