In his report issued on 24 May, the DoT OIG was critical of the effort being made to reduce the incidence of runway incursions. He paid particular attention to Boston Logan, Chicago O’Hare, Philadelphia, and Los Angeles International Airports. Runway incursions are graded by severity of the incident (A through D). Category A runway incursions represent incidents in which a collision was barely avoided, whereas Category D runway incursions represent incidents where there was little or no chance of a collision. From 1999 to 2006 the number of incursions has remained static at around 320 to 330 per annum. However 2000 and 2001 showed a leap upwards of around 80 each. Of greater concern is the fact that even though the most serious incidents had decreased from a high of 69 in FY 1999 to a low of 28 in FY 2004, since 2003 the number of runway incursions has leveled off, and very serious runway incursions continue to occur. During the period of FY 2005 through FY 2006, Boston Logan had 22 incidents (1 severe), Chicago O’Hare had 15 incidents (5 severe), Philadelphia International had 16 incidents (1 severe involving a collision), and Los Angeles International had 16 incidents (2 severe). Incidents generally seem to be split equally between controller and pilot error. The OIG report didn't address the status or likely effectiveness of runway safety technologies, such as ASDE-X (airport surface detection equipment-model X) and ADS-B (automatic dependent surveillance-broadcast), which are still being audited and will be made public later this year.
Meanwhile Jeppesen has introduced a hot-spot system that designates on its airfield diagram paper charts, in eye-catching magenta coloring, the hotspots (HS1, HS2 etc) on each runway/taxiway and taxiway/taxiway intersection that could lead to a collision. This supplements the red depictions that it has been using on its electronic charts for some time now.