While senior Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) officials remain preoccupied with aircraft maintenance safety in the wake of the historic Southwest fine and widespread aircraft checks by other U.S. air carriers, the U.S. aviation agency continues to introduce and implement new runway safety initiatives. Related Story
Acting FAA Administrator Robert Sturgell said at a Washington news conference on Mar. 25 that runway safety remains “one of our top safety initiatives. Safety does remain our primary focus, and we will not allow the distractions of the day to keep us from the work at hand.”
The agency is also considering changing the methodology for clearing aircraft as they proceed to the runway, something recommended by the National Transportation Safety Board. FAA conducted a safety risk analysis of: explicit taxi clearance instructions, explicit runway crossings clearances, take off clearances, multiple landing clearances (including landing clearances too far from the airport). This resulted in adapting to international phraseology such as "line-up and wait" instead of the U.S. "position and hold" phraseology after finding more explicit instructions are desirable. The FAA will implement new requirements no later than June 2008. Other safety risk analyses are being reviewed.
He also announced the agency is sponsoring a first-ever symposium dedicated solely to the issue of fatigue, since pilot and controller fatigue has been cited in many runway safety incidents. The event will take place June 17-19 in the Washington, DC area. “Technology itself isn’t the only answer to a safe runway,” said the head of the FAA. “It’s not going to make incursions disappear overnight. We also must focus on the human factor. One of those factors that sometimes surfaces is fatigue. Tired people are more apt to make mistakes. Everyone knows that. Whether it’s fatigued pilots, controllers, mechanics, or anyone else, we want to work with the industry to discuss the problem and find possible solutions.”
Recently, the agency came under criticism from the General Accountability Office which said that leadership on runway safety is still lacking at the agency. Related Story
Meanwhile, Sturgell noted that there have been 14 serious runway incursions since the fiscal year started on Oct. 1, but only three have involved commercial air carriers, and there were no deaths or injuries resulting. “Fourteen is a tiny fraction considering the millions of takeoffs and landings that have gone on in that span,” he said.
The FAA has concentrated its efforts on the 20 U.S. airports with the highest number of runway incursions. The effort led to more than 100 fixes, some of them as simple as improving the markings and paint on taxiways. Of those 20 airports, 18 handle commercial transports, and there hasn’t been a serious runway incursion at those commercial facilities so far this fiscal year. And those 18 airports accounted for 33 percent of all serious incidents last year.
Elated with the results at the 20 airports, the FAA is reviewing 22 additional airfields, including Sea-Tac, Midway, LaGuardia, Dulles International and Teterboro, in hopes of further driving down the overall number of runway incursions nationwide. Complementing the efforts of the airport runway safety action teams are technology programs. Sturgell cited Jeppesen’s development of a cockpit moving map as a good example of new high-tech gear that can help alleviate the problem. Jeppesen recently won FAA endorsement of its Airport Moving Map application for Class 2 EFB devices.
Airport Moving Map uses a detailed database to dynamically render maps of the airport surface, and through the use of GPS technology, show pilots their position ("own-ship") on the airport surface. The result is much improved positional awareness among flight crews, which is a critical safety factor for reducing runway incursions during ground operations at busy commercial airports with complex runway and taxiway layouts.
Jeppesen has conducted numerous field studies using simulators and airline flight crews to validate the benefit of Airport Moving Map technology for EFBs. These studies revealed consistent improvement in pilot performance because flight crews are better able to anticipate their location in relationship to runways, taxiways and parking locations.
Additional research by the Commercial Aviation Safety Team (CAST) estimates that runway incursions caused by pilot deviations can be reduced by 50 percent when flight crews have Airport Moving Map.
The Jeppesen Airport Moving Map application has been in use on Class 3 EFBs for almost five years now. Approval of the Class 2 application is significant because it makes enhanced situational awareness available to a much larger group of aircraft. Airlines are looking at Class 2 EFB hardware solutions to cost effectively retrofit large fleets of existing aircraft, which, when coupled with Jeppesen Airport Moving Map, is a major step forward in reducing the risk of runway incursions.
The FAA finalized new policies at the end of April 2007, embodied in Advisory Circular AC 20-159, to allow Airport Moving Map with own ship position to be shown on Class 2 EFBs.
Jeppesen is currently working with a number of carriers to begin deployments on Class 2 EFB. Jeppesen plans to deliver the TSO-approved software to begin integration on the Continental Airlines EFB system provided by NavAero. This begins a first-time integration effort lasting approximately two months, leading to a May or June target date for first in-service use of Airport Moving Map on a Class 2 EFB.
Sturgell said the FAA will earmark up to $5 million for cost-sharing, cooperative agreements with industry to help us better analyze the benefits of current cockpit runway safety technologies. “It’s a public-private partnership at its best. And it’s in the formative stages at the moment, but the aim is for the operators and manufacturers to outline what they would do with the funds to improve runway safety through the installation of technologies like cockpit moving map displays, the runway advisory warning system, ADS-B, and others,” he added.
Meanwhile, the FAA has two low-cost runway surveillance systems under evaluation at Spokane International. The low-cost ground surveillance systems would provide ground situational awareness to controllers at the airports that are not slated to get ASDE-X systems.
One system, the Nova 9000 Surface Management System, involves using X-band radar to detect movement on the airport surface, and the other system, the Critical Area Management System, would place millimeter wave sensors along runways and taxiways to detect movement on the airport surface.
Sturgell said FAA officials are identifying other commercially available, low-cost systems “that might fit the bill, and to see where they could be installed and tested.” The FAA has completed a market survey to identify potential industry partners, and eight companies have stepped forward.
“We expect to award contracts for the pilot project this fiscal year. Additionally, we plan to have some of these products on the ground and under evaluation at about six airports in fiscal 2009. These systems will directly benefit the controller workforce with increased situational awareness,” he added.
On the other hand, technology that warns pilots about potential runway safety hazards will be installed at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) under a partnership between the FAA and the City of Los Angeles. The system, called Runway Status Lights, uses a series of red lights embedded in the pavement to warn pilots if it is unsafe to cross over or enter a runway.
Under an agreement between the FAA and Los Angeles World Airports (LAWA), pilots will begin testing Runway Status Lights at LAX — the nation’s fourth busiest airport — early next year. Related Story  The FAA is inviting companies to present proposals for a national rollout of runway status lights. The FAA expect to announce this summer the name of the winning contractor.