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When asked by ground control to assess the level of brightness of the terminal lights on a new section of terminal B at dfw an air carrier captain; serendipitously involved in pilot vision studies; described the unshielded lights as a 'night vision destroyer;' in particular for traffic taxiing westbound.
| Attributes | |
| ACN | 1167352 |
| Time | |
| Date | 201404 |
| Local Time Of Day | 1801-2400 |
| Place | |
| Locale Reference | DFW.Airport |
| State Reference | TX |
| Aircraft 1 | |
| Make Model Name | Commercial fixed Wing |
| Operating Under FAR Part | Part 121 |
| Flight Phase | Taxi |
| Flight Plan | IFR |
| Person 1 | |
| Function | Captain Pilot Flying |
| Qualification | Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP) |
| Events | |
| Anomaly | Flight Deck / Cabin / Aircraft Event Other / Unknown Ground Event / Encounter Other / Unknown |
Narrative:
I was asked while taxiing over the dfw north bridge westbound if the lights on the new B terminal extension were a problem. They are very bright and not hooded for westbound taxi that I could tell. I have recently been doing research on pilots and vision. It can take the better part of an hour to develop night vision and this exposure during a taxi to [runway] 18L is a night vision destroyer; especially when told to follow traffic from D and B terminals. I don't know if this was a ground controller doing opinion research or part of an airport survey. I know an engineer who was involved with the last light update on the C and a terminals and it was a very well considered project that required several adjustments to accomplish. Similar effort should be devoted to this project as well. I voiced my concern to the controller based on my research and the other two opinions I heard raised no concern. I think this needed to be looked into.the FAA provides the following guidance in regards to night vision. The rods can take approximately 30 minutes to fully adapt to darkness. A bright light; however; can completely destroy night adaptation; leaving night vision severely compromised while the adaptation process is repeated.
Original NASA ASRS Text
Title: When asked by Ground Control to assess the level of brightness of the terminal lights on a new section of Terminal B at DFW an air carrier Captain; serendipitously involved in pilot vision studies; described the unshielded lights as a 'night vision destroyer;' in particular for traffic taxiing westbound.
Narrative: I was asked while taxiing over the DFW North Bridge westbound if the lights on the new B Terminal extension were a problem. They are very bright and not hooded for westbound taxi that I could tell. I have recently been doing research on pilots and vision. It can take the better part of an hour to develop night vision and this exposure during a taxi to [Runway] 18L is a night vision destroyer; especially when told to follow traffic from D and B terminals. I don't know if this was a Ground Controller doing opinion research or part of an airport survey. I know an Engineer who was involved with the last light update on the C and A terminals and it was a very well considered project that required several adjustments to accomplish. Similar effort should be devoted to this project as well. I voiced my concern to the Controller based on my research and the other two opinions I heard raised no concern. I think this needed to be looked into.The FAA provides the following guidance in regards to night vision. The rods can take approximately 30 minutes to fully adapt to darkness. A bright light; however; can completely destroy night adaptation; leaving night vision severely compromised while the adaptation process is repeated.
Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.