Senior Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) officials say efforts
launched two months ago to slash runway incursions and other surface mishaps at
U.S. airports are paying off.
The FAA in partnership with controllers and industry on Aug. 15 agreed to
step up efforts to reduce the number of runway mishaps at U.S. airports,
disclosing short-term initiatives.
A runway incursion is an incident on a runway involving an aircraft,
vehicle, person, or object that creates a collision hazard or results in loss of
required separation with an aircraft preparing to take off or land.
FAA Acting Administrator Robert Sturgell reports that the most serious
kinds of runway incursions---A/B level events--- have declined to an all-time
low of 24 in Fiscal Year 2007, which ended Sept. 30. Eight of the two-dozen
serious runway incursions involved commercial air carriers. C level incursions
are also down, from 75 in FY 2006 to 49 in fiscal 2007. Only D level events---
the least serious kind---rose, but Sturgell attributed that to better reporting.
The initiatives respond to recent runway incursions across the United
States, including high-profile incidents in the last year in Chicago and Fort
Lauderdale. The short-term measures are being worked in conjunction with medium-
term and longer-term action items. The quick fixes include new technology,
modified procedures, improved runway markings and recurrent training for ground
personnel.
Airport safety reviews were conducted at 20 U.S. airports that have
suffered multiple runway incursion incidents, with inspector teams, made up of
FAA and airport officials, looking at operational procedures, signage and
markings.
They are:
Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Atlanta Dekalb Peachtree Boston Logan International Chicago O'Hare International Dallas Dallas/Ft. Worth International Denver Denver International Ft. Lauderdale Ft. Lauderdale-Hollywood International Las Vegas McCarran International Las Vegas North Las Vegas Long Beach Long Beach/Daugherty Field Los Angeles Los Angeles International Miami Miami International Milwaukee General Mitchell International New York John F. Kennedy International Orlando Orlando International Philadelphia Philadelphia International Reno Reno-Tahoe International San Francisco San Francisco International San Jose Norman Y. Mineta San Jose International Santa Ana John Wayne Airport (Orange County) Santa Ana
