On Oct 30, 4:54*am, Bob Noel wrote:

When safety enhancements are retrofitted to a fleet, there will always
be a time when most aircraft do not have the enhancement.

So we can expect to see more of this blinking in the future? I would
think it would be a distraction to the pilot when landing the plane.
To the ground personnel, it would certainly be an enhancement. But
what happens when you have several aircraft visible in an area, and
one of them has blinking landing lights? Wouldn't that also be a
distraction from the other aircraft? What I'm getting at, is I can see
it as being useful for a signaling mechanism e.g. for an ambulance
crew when a plane is bringing in a passenger needing attention
(remember how the police and fire couldn't communicate during 9/11
because of radio issues? All that would need to be communicated from
the tower is "it's the plane with the blinking lights").

What I don't see being very useful is for some planes to use it and
others not to, based only on the whim of the pilot. So I'm wondering
if there's any policy or rule by any authority on when this feature
can or can not be used.