WSJ: When Pilots Pass the BRBON, They Must Be in Kentucky

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The Wall Street Journal

March 21, 2006

When Pilots Pass the BRBON, They Must Be in Kentucky

FAA Seeks Memorable Names For Empty Points in Sky;
A FMBLE for Houston
By SCOTT MCCARTNEY
March 21, 2006; Page A1

To arrive in Nashville, it takes PICKN and GRNIN and often a pass through HEHAW. It's the same for guitar players -- and pilots.

PICKN, GRNIN and HEHAW are fixed points in the sky that pilots use when they are flying into Nashville International Airport in Tennessee. Throughout the world, aviation authorities establish set routes to guide planes. They label key navigational points with unique identifiers, usually five-letter codes, called fixes. In the U.S., the Federal Aviation Administration has chosen to mark the skies with a sense of humor.

Airplanes approaching Newark International Airport in New Jersey toward the northeast will cross either HOWYA or DOOIN. Louisiana has RYTHM, Kentucky has BRBON and Massachusetts has BOSOX. Kansas City, Mo., has SPICY, BARBQ and RIBBS. To pilots, Montpelier, Vt., is known for its HAMMM, BURGR and FRYYS. Andrews Air Force Base near Washington has a Republican bent these days, with an approach from the south that goes from FORRD to RREGN and one from the north that moves from DUBYA to BUUSH.

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It's not all Looney Tunes. The FAA says it creates memorable fixes to improve safety by making it easier for pilots to remember instructions and avoid flying the wrong route. Who's going to forget HOLDM near Las Vegas?

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Indeed, mix-ups can be tragic. In 1995, an American Airlines Boeing 757 crashed near Cali, Colombia, killing 160 people, after the pilots mistakenly told the plane's autopilot to fly to a navigational beacon named ROZO when they meant to enter a fix called ROMEO, investigators found. The computer began turning the plane around in a narrow valley, and the plane hit a mountaintop.

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