In March 2024, the FAA released a significant update to Advisory Circular 150/5210-7E, Aircraft Rescue and Fire Fighting Communications. If you’re responsible for ARFF communications at your airport, this document is worth a close read. It replaces the previous version (7D, dated 2008) and reflects how much the landscape has changed in the last sixteen years — particularly when it comes to crash phone systems.
The updated AC doesn’t mandate a specific technology. But the guidance it provides paints a pretty clear picture of where the FAA expects airport emergency communications to be heading. And if your airport is still running analog crash phone lines, some of these recommendations may be hard to meet without a modern alternative.
The AC identifies the crash phone — a dedicated landline between the control tower and ARFF station — as one of the primary methods for initial emergency notification (Section 3.2). That part hasn’t changed. What has changed is the level of detail the FAA now provides around system reliability and performance expectations.
Section 3.1.1 lays out several enhanced recommendations for crash phone systems. Among them: the emergency direct-line telephone should not transmit through any system that could introduce delays or diminish clarity. The FAA specifically recommends avoiding the use of your administrative phone system (PBX or conference bridge) for crash phone functions. Central components should be fully redundant and fault-tolerant, with geographically diverse communications paths encouraged for fault tolerance.
There’s also a new emphasis on network monitoring. Section 3.1.1.8 encourages monitoring all devices in the crash phone network using protocols like SNMP. And Section 3.1.1.7 recommends a visual indication of which stations have picked up the call — something legacy analog systems simply can’t provide.
Traditional analog crash phone setups typically consist of a button in the tower that triggers an alarm connected to the ARFF station via a dedicated physical copper line. That single line is the entire notification path. If a construction project severs it, if the wiring degrades over time, or if the connection simply fails, your emergency notification capability goes with it — and you might not know until someone actually needs it.
The updated AC’s guidance around redundancy, fault tolerance, network monitoring, and visual call status all point toward capabilities that analog infrastructure was never designed to deliver. It’s not that the FAA is saying your analog system is non-compliant. The AC is advisory, not regulatory (though it is mandatory for airports receiving AIP or PFC funding). But the direction of the guidance is clear: airports should be moving toward systems that offer more reliability, more visibility, and more flexibility than a single copper pair.
KEANS is an IP-based emergency alert notification system built specifically for airports. It rides on your existing airport network infrastructure — the same network that supports your computers, phones, and security systems — rather than relying on dedicated analog cabling. Here’s how that maps to the AC’s updated recommendations:
Redundancy and fault tolerance. Your airport has already invested in making its network redundant. KEANS leverages that investment. The system runs on your internal LAN, typically on a dedicated VLAN, and doesn’t depend on public internet connectivity. If your ISP goes down, KEANS keeps working.
No delays or diminished clarity. KEANS doesn’t route through your administrative PBX or conference bridge. It’s a dedicated crash phone platform that prioritizes emergency traffic. When a crash phone is picked up off-hook, it instantly bridges all connected stations with no dialing required.
Device monitoring. Every endpoint on the KEANS network — phones, speakers, strobes — is automatically monitored every 30 seconds. If a device goes offline, both the airport and KOVA are notified immediately. Compare that to an analog line where a severed cable might go undetected until an actual emergency.
Visual call status. KEANS provides real-time visual indication of which stations have joined the conference call — exactly the kind of capability the AC recommends in Section 3.1.1.7.
The AC also discusses multifunction notification (Section 3.5) — the ability to simultaneously notify ARFF, airport police, airport management, military units, and other authorities using a conference circuit. KEANS handles this natively. When the tower activates an alert, KEANS can notify police, fire, Homeland Security, Coast Guard, maintenance, and other stakeholders both on and off the airport property, all at once.
The system also supports multiple alert categories — crash alerts, medical emergencies, fuel spills, wildlife incidents, daily tests — each with different notification groups, different strobe colors, and different pre-recorded announcements. Your ARFF team gets specific, actionable information immediately rather than a generic siren that requires a follow-up radio call.
And because KEANS integrates with platforms like Everbridge, airports can extend emergency notifications well beyond the crash phone circuit to include mass notification via text, email, and mobile app — reaching personnel who aren’t sitting next to a crash phone handset.
Airports don’t have to rip and replace everything overnight. A practical migration starts with the core: a server (physical or virtual), a phone in the tower, and contact closure adapters that can trigger your existing alarms and sirens. If the tower already has a button that energizes a circuit to set off an alarm, KEANS can replicate that exact behavior — the only thing that changes is what the controller presses in the tower.
If your airport already has a virtual server environment, turnaround can be as fast as two weeks from purchase order. The endpoints are powered over Ethernet (PoE), so a single Cat 6 cable provides both data and power — no separate electrical runs needed.
The first step is understanding your current setup. What does your existing alarm circuit look like? Is your airport network present in the tower and ARFF areas? Do you have a virtual server environment? With those answers, we can scope a solution that replaces your aging analog infrastructure, aligns with the updated AC guidance, and gives you a growth path for enhanced capabilities as your needs evolve.
The airports that have made this transition aren’t looking back. If you’d like to learn more about how KEANS can help your airport meet the intent of AC 150/5210-7E, reach out to us at kovacorp.com. We’re happy to walk through your current setup and show you what a modern crash phone system looks like.
Note: FAA Advisory Circular 150/5210-7E is guidance material, not regulation. It is mandatory for airports receiving Federal grant assistance (AIP) or Passenger Facility Charge (PFC) funding. Consult the full AC and your regulatory contacts for compliance-specific questions.
