In response to an increasing number of runway incursions, many involving regional aircraft, the National Transportation Safety Board scheduled a one-day forum on March 27, 2007, focusing on airport runway incursions and accidents, and potential safety solutions.
“The NTSB has investigated several near collisions in the past few years that could have been catastrophic if it hadn't been for sharp-eyed flight crews and luck,” Rosenker said.
One of the most recent investigations was a January 5, incident at Denver  involving a Key Lime Air Metroliner and a Frontier (FRNT) A319. The Metroliner inadvertently entered a runway as the A319 was on short final to the same runway. The A319 crew saw the Metroliner as it descended out of clouds and executed a missed approach. The airplanes missed colliding by about 50 feet. The forum is set for 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. in the NTSB Board Room and Conference Center, 429 L'Enfant Plaza, S.W., Washington, DC. A live and archived webcast of the forum will be available on the Board's website at www.ntsb.gov. Industry is invited set up display booths to present technologies related to runway incursion prevention. Contact daniel.bartlett@ntsb.gov by March 8.
Runway incursions are on the Board’s 10-Most-Wanted List with little having been accomplished to date, according to the Board. Its current recommendation is for the FAA to require all airports with scheduled service, a ground movement safety system to prevent incursions which would include direct cockpit warnings to the crew. The forum will cover the scope of the problem, how to avoid runway incursions, educational initiatives and new technologies addressing the problem. Panelists will include representatives from the Federal Aviation Administration, Department of Defense, Flight Safety Foundation, Air Line Pilots Association International, Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association, and the National Air Traffic Controllers Association.
The Runway Safety Forum coincides with the 30th anniversary of the world's worst aviation accident – the runway collision in 1977 between two jumbo jets at Los Rodeos Airport, Tenerife, Canary Islands, which took the lives of 583 people on board two Pan Am and KLM 747s. Capt. Robert Bragg, the Pan Am co-pilot that day, will recount his experiences.