What must a landing area have to ensure safe night operations?

For safe night operations, a landing area must have operable lighting or high-intensity reflective markers. This requirement is crucial because visibility is significantly reduced during nighttime, making it challenging for pilots to navigate and land safely. Operable lighting systems, such as approach lights, runway edge lights, and threshold lights, provide essential cues for pilots about the runway’s location and orientation. High-intensity reflective markers serve as an additional safety measure, enhancing visibility in conditions where lighting may be inadequate.

This combination of lighting and reflective markers helps reduce the risk of accidents during landing, which can occur if pilots cannot easily identify the runway or its dimensions in the dark. Ground support equipment and increased traffic monitoring are important aspects of overall operational safety but do not directly address the visibility requirements necessary for night landings. Similarly, having only runway reflective markers would not be sufficient without the complement of operable lighting systems.