In the wake of another runway incursion involving a regional airlines, the General Accounting Office told House hearings recently that the risk of runway incursions at U.S. airports remains high despite concerted effort by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to reduce the air safety risk, FAA and government investigators testified last week, according to a dispatch from RAN’s sister publication Air Safety Week.
The General Accountability Office's Gerald Dillingham told a House panel that even though the FAA has given a higher priority to reducing runway incidents, there were 24 of the most serious kinds of runway incursions in fiscal year 2008, which ended Sept. 30, the same as FY07. However, he pointed out that air traffic operations were down this year making the rate worse than last year. The rate of serious incidents increased five percent in the first three quarters .The GAO noted that the FAA's latest actions to improve runway safety include deployment and test of new technologies and changes to airport layout, markings, signage and lighting. The FAA has also implemented new air traffic procedures.
The hearings came as an incident involving Mesa Airlines happened in Allentown, Penn. A Cessna failed to make its exit after landing, putting Mesa’s United Express Flight 7138 in jeopardy. The Bombardier CRJ-700 was bound for Chicago on the evening of September 19 when it aborted takeoff to avoid the private aircraft.two incidents occurred amongst regional airlines. The FAA also announced awards to SkyWest, US Airways and Southwest Airlines of $600,000 each to install cockpit equipment to help them avoid runway incursions, something the National Transportation Safety Board has long wanted. SkyWest and US Airways were involved in the nation's worst runway accident in 1991 and Southwest has also had a fatal runway mishap. The funding is part of a $5 million program to equip aircraft serving major airports with runway safety issues, such as Los Angeles, with new technology and the three airlines will be testing the systems for the agency. Related Stories
Dillingham said the FAA could further improve runway safety by "ensuring the timely deployment of technology, encouraging the development of new technology, and increasing its focus on human factor issues." The GAO backs deployment of runway status lights (RSLs) at 22 major airports and development of incursion warning systems in the cockpit.
FAA Chief Operating Officer Hank Krakowski said the agency has made "solid progress" this year, noting that the 24 serious incidents in 2007 were down from a high of 53 incidents in 2001.
"FAA believes that the technologies we are now testing and deploying will be responsive to address the problem of runway incursions," he stated. Krakowski said 65 percent of runway incursions in 2008 were due to pilot error, while 25 percent was blamed on vehicle/pedestrian error and 10 percent was caused by controller error.
The FAA is testing a system at Long Beach Airport, known as the Final Approach Runway Occupancy Signal (FAROS), which will further enhance runway safety. This system is similar to RSLs in that it provides immediate information to pilots on approach to land that the runway is occupied or otherwise unsafe for landing.
The FAROS system determines the occupancy of the runway by detecting aircraft or vehicles on the runway surface. If a monitored area on the runway is occupied, FAROS activates a signal to alert the pilot that it is potentially unsafe to land. The FAA is developing a plan for implementing FAROS at larger airports, and expect to begin operational trials at Dallas-Fort Worth later this fall.
Meanwhile, the FAA is also evaluating low-cost ground surveillance systems for potential application at airports that are currently not programmed to receive ASDE-X technology.
The FAA evaluated two such systems at Spokane, WA, and Krakowski believes that "basic ground surveillance capability, increasing controller situational awareness, can be provided at a cost less than the more sophisticated ASDE-X technology that is needed at larger, more complex airports."
The agency issued a request for proposal inviting industry offers of candidate low-cost ground surveillance products for FAA evaluation in a pilot program to determine which products satisfy minimum operational and safety requirements. "We will use the results of the pilot project to determine the feasibility and cost-effectiveness of implementing a low-cost surveillance product, and if deemed feasible, develop a plan for acquisition and deployment. Several industry offers are currently under review and we expect to complete our evaluations in the near future," he told the lawmakers.
Recently the FAA conducted it’s first-ever symposium on fatigue, which has caused runway incursions. "We are preparing the proceedings of the Fatigue Symposium for posting on the FAA homepage. We have already applied some of the information, ideas and strategies in its evaluation of air carrier-specific proposals for ultra long range (ULR) operations (operations with a flight or flights in excess of 16 hours). The FAA is observing the effectiveness of the fatigue mitigation strategies employed in ULR operations, for any "lessons learned" that may be applied to other, non-ULR operations," Krakowski testified.