Narrative:

Abq; within the last month; has converted to led lighting over the entire airfield. This includes the runway lights; taxiway lights; and airfield marking. The lights are not adequate for operations in that the lights are too bright. When I landed; the lights throughout the airfield were on low and they were exceptionally bright. The excessive brightness; particularly in the approach and flare; can lead to a lack of depth perception and could lead to very poor landings and touchdowns. The lights are so bright it leads to a loss of night vision not unlike a light being flashed directly in your eyes. The turn-off taxi lights are also disorienting as they reduce depth perception due to 'flash' blindness. I queried the first officer if he felt the same as I did and he agreed. I queried the tower controller as to when the lights were changed out and he said within the last month. I further queried him if he had received any feedback on the lights and he relayed that the lights were not well received by air crews. Although this appears to be a minor complaint; I am truly concerned by the 'flash blindness' potential of landing with these lights. I expressed my opinion that the lights were terrible to the controller and he agreed. Please take a look at this as it is a real hazard. The lights need to be at least annotated on the 10-7 page; but better yet; a thorough test of the effects of led lights on pilots' vision needs to be accomplished. The leds are not good. Very poor lighting could lead to disorienting situation.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: An air carrier Captain reported that the ABQ LED runway and taxiway lights were too bright; and potentially disorienting to pilots during landing and taxiing.

Narrative: ABQ; within the last month; has converted to LED lighting over the entire airfield. This includes the runway lights; taxiway lights; and airfield marking. The lights are not adequate for operations in that the lights are too bright. When I landed; the lights throughout the airfield were on low and they were exceptionally bright. The excessive brightness; particularly in the approach and flare; can lead to a lack of depth perception and could lead to very poor landings and touchdowns. The lights are so bright it leads to a loss of night vision not unlike a light being flashed directly in your eyes. The turn-off taxi lights are also disorienting as they reduce depth perception due to 'flash' blindness. I queried the First Officer if he felt the same as I did and he agreed. I queried the Tower Controller as to when the lights were changed out and he said within the last month. I further queried him if he had received any feedback on the lights and he relayed that the lights were not well received by air crews. Although this appears to be a minor complaint; I am truly concerned by the 'flash blindness' potential of landing with these lights. I expressed my opinion that the lights were terrible to the Controller and he agreed. Please take a look at this as it is a real hazard. The lights need to be at least annotated on the 10-7 page; but better yet; a thorough test of the effects of LED lights on pilots' vision needs to be accomplished. The LEDs are not good. Very poor lighting could lead to disorienting situation.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of April 2012 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.