• Journal of the Korean Society for Aviation and Aeronautics
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• v.30 no.3
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• pp.28-37
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• 2022

Obstacle Limitation Surface (OLS) is conceptual surface establishing the airspace around aerodromes to be maintained from obstacles to ensure safe aircraft operations. Despite advances in the technologies for aircraft, navigation systems and the development of new flight procedures, the criteria defining OLS have not been amended since its initial establishment, resulting in the overestimation of areas for height restriction. As there were requests to examine OLS at the 12th Air Navigation Conference and the 38th ICAO Assembly, the research on the OLS revision began in earnest and ICAO has proposed Obstacle Free Surface (OFS) and Obstacle Evaluation Surface (OES) as an alternative of the existing OLS. OFS is surfaces where obstacles shall not be permitted, and OES is ones where obstacles be evaluated with an aeronautical study and could be permitted under some conditions. The purpose of this study is to preemptively assess the efficiency and safety of OFS and OES by applying them to the second runway (15L/33R) of Incheon International Airport. The results show that OFS and OES are capable of serving the instrument flight procedure safely with a smaller obstacle clearance area compared to the existing OLS.