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FIVE times a day, airport staff in runway sweepers comb Changi's two take-off and landing strips to make sure there are no nuts, bolts, screws or other potentially dangerous objects on the surface.
By early next year, the process will be automated.
Each 4-km-long stretch will have 12 cameras to keep a round-the-clock watch and alert staff at the control station if objects are detected, said a Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore (CAAS) spokesman.
The $12 million surveillance system is developed and supplied by Singapore-listed Stratech Systems which on Tuesday sealed a partnership with SITA - a global air transport communications company - to export the technology to other airports.
Apart from Changi, the system, called iFerret, will also be piloted at O'Hare International Airport in Chicago.
With more than 3,800 civilian airports around the world, it is a potentially huge market for Stratech. The company hopes to leverage on SITA's network which currently spans more than 220 countries and over 1,800 customers.
They include airports, airlines and ground-handling companies.
For a start, the joint Stratech-SITA team hope to introduce the system at four airport runways in the first year, and 12 a year after.
Incidents arising from undetected objects on runways is a costly affair for the industry.
Each year, an estimated US$4 billion is spent on aircraft repairs and maintenance as a result of such incidents around the world.
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