By David Shepardson
WASHINGTON, May 13 (Reuters) - The Federal Aviation Administration said Wednesday it will spend $16.5 million to install transponders on its airport vehicles after a fatal collision in March at New York's LaGuardia airport between an Air Canada Express jet and a fire truck.
The fire truck did not have a transponder that would have transmitted its location to air traffic control.
The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which oversees LaGuardia and other area airports, said
last month it would add transponders to its vehicles that operate around runways.
The FAA plans to immediately begin equipping its approximately 1,900 vehicles at 264 airports that have or will have surface awareness technology.
Transponders help air traffic controllers identify and track vehicles on runways and taxiways.
FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford said the devices "help prevent dangerous runway incidents and by accelerating the deployment of this technology, we’re closing critical visibility gaps on our nation’s runways and taxiways."
Last month, the National Transportation Safety Board said LaGuardia's ground surveillance system did not generate an alert that vehicles were close to the runway.
The FAA noted that airports can use federal funds to equip vehicles with transponders and more than 50 airports have already expressed interest.
(Reporting by David Shepardson, Editing by Franklin Paul and David Gregorio)
