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A FORMER safety chief of a German airline has raised concerns about a cockpit warning system that frequently gives false alarms. The Ground Proximity Warning System (GPWS) alerts pilots if they are dangerously close to the ground and is used on all large commercial aircraft. Thomas Baberg, who was General Manager of Flight Safety at Lufthansa, claims that pilots 鈥渓ose confidence鈥� in the system because 95 per cent of the time it鈥檚 crying wolf (Aerospace Science Technology, vol 5, p 495). A spokesman for the British Civil Aviation Authority says that GPWS is so important that no pilot would ignore it. 鈥淭he CAA鈥檚 experience is that crews have full confidence in the system,鈥� he says.