FAA touts progress in lowering runway incursion risk

FAA Air Traffic Organization CEO Hank Krakowski told the US House of Representatives aviation subcommittee last week that the agency is making progress on reducing runway incursions, insisting that "serious" near misses on the ground are down significantly.

"An aggressive and effective FAA runway safety program has reduced the number of serious runway incursions by 55% since 2001," he said. Lawmakers in recent weeks have seized on a Government Accountability Office report concluding that "the rate of runway incursions has not decreased over the last five years" (ATWOnline, Dec. 6, 2007).

"We appreciate the work that the GAO. . .[has] done and we welcome their analysis and feedback," Krakowski testified. He explained that statistics on total incursions are misleading because FAA recently adopted ICAO's broader definition of incursions and emphasized that the most series incidents continue to decline (ATWOnline, Oct. 2, 2007).

"While runway safety has received more public attention in recent months, it is important to remember that for many years the FAA has actively invested in programs and technology development to address this serious aviation safety issue," he said. "FAA believes that the technologies we are now testing and deploying will be responsive to address the problem of runway incursions." He said 55% of incursions "are as a result of pilot error," while "operational errors and deviations by air traffic controllers represent about 30% of causes. . .[and] the rest are attributed to pedestrian or vehicle errors."

Air Transport Assn. VP-Operations and Safety Basil Barimo told the panel that increasing situational awareness is the key to lowering the risk of incursions. "The optimal way to enabling better situational awareness. . . remains through the application of ADS-B, a key component of the Next Generation Air Transportation System. . .The airlines have identified several short-term enhancements to further improve safety. However, NextGen, which still awaits congressional funding, holds the greatest promise to provide a deeper level of pilot and controller situational awareness."

Airports Council International-North America President Greg Principato testified that airports have "taken an aggressive stance" on reducing incursions and noted that 72 of the US's 75 large and medium-sized airports "have completed upgrades for improved centerline painting and markings on their taxiways."