History
In the late 1960s, a series of controlled flight into terrain (CFIT) accidents took the lives of hundreds of people. (A CFIT accident is one where a properly functioning airplane under the control of a fully qualified and certificated crew is flown into terrain (or water or obstacles) with no apparent awareness on the part of the crew.)
Beginning in the early 1970s, a number of studies looked at the occurrence of CFIT accidents. Findings from these studies indicated that many such accidents could have been avoided if a warning device called a ground proximity warning system (GPWS) had been used. As a result of these studies and recommendations from the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), in 1974 the FAA required all large turbine and turbojet airplanes to install TSO-approved GPWS equipment.
C. Donald Bateman, a Canadian-born engineer, developed and is credited with the invention of GPWS.
In March 2000, the U.S. FAA amended operating rules to require that all U.S. registered turbine-powered airplanes with six or more passenger seats (exclusive of pilot and copilot seating) be equipped with an FAA-approved TAWS. The mandate affects aircraft manufactured after March 29, 2002.
Read more about this topic: Ground Proximity Warning System
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