FAA Annual Runway Safety Report 2009

Air Traffic Organization Annual Runway Federal Aviation Administration 800 Independence Avenue, SW Safety Report 2009 Washington, DC 20591 2009-AJS-129 A Message from the FAA Administrator Dear Colleagues: We’re making progress on the issue of runway safety, but as an agency and as an industry, we need to do more. This report details the strides we’ve made over the last year. It also includes our next steps to take what is arguably one of the safest locations in all of aviation— a U.S. runway— and make it safer still. In the long term, runway safety is very, very good. Last year, we had 25 serious runway incursions. That’s out of more than 58 million operations. Serious runway incursions have dropped by more than half since 2001. Nine of those 25 serious incursions last year involved commercial aircraft. The 25 incursions were up one from the previous year, which was an all-time low. But the 2008 totals show that we must increase our vigilance. Last year, runway incursions of all types increased by some 13 percent over 2007, rising from 891 to 1,009. So far in fiscal year 2009, the data look promising with a projected drop in total incursions for the full year by some five percent and an accompanying reduction in serious incursions by at least 50 percent. These data are encouraging. But while the actual runway incursion numbers are still a very thin slice of overall operations, as an aviation professional, I believe that very good is still not good enough. As a result, we’ve redoubled our efforts to see more positive results in the short term. Since almost two thirds of incursions last year resulted from pilot deviations, we’ve required air carriers to retrain their crews. We also moved to have the carriers review cockpit procedures to identify and develop plans to minimize pilot distractions during taxi. All 112 carriers have complied with these efforts. Carriers also are emphasizing their recurrent training programs for non-pilots who operate aircraft or other vehicles on the airfield. Earlier this year, more than 485,000 pilots received brochures and DVDs on runway safety via cooperative mailings with the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association and the National Association of Flight Instructors. We’ve taken action in other areas as well such as new technology, end-around taxiways, runway safety areas, new ATC procedures, and airport markings, lighting and signage. The pages that follow outline those and other initiatives. As a pilot and as a passenger, I’m confident that they will bear fruit in the form of increased safety on our runways. Sincerely, J. Randolph Babbitt Administrator, Federal Aviation Administration FAA is Proactively Addressing Risk in the Runway Environment The mission of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Office of Runway Safety is “To improve runway safety in the United States (U.S.) by decreasing the number and severity of surface incidents and runway incursions.” This mission is accomplished through the collaboration of the FAA and its many stakeholders in the aviation community. The FAA and its air traffic control system, along with pilots and airport operators work together every day to ensure that procedures are followed, coordination of safe aircraft movement occurs, and that airport infrastructure is maintained. This creates a system of checks and balances designed to mitigate risk in the runway environment. Additionally, the FAA also partners with aircraft operators, pilots, airport managers and industry groups to proactively review the effectiveness of these checks and balances and identify additional means to improve safety. Given the complexities of the runway environment and the relatively infrequent occurrence of runway incursions, the FAA tracks the frequency and severity of runway incursions on a national level to determine if the system is working in addition to looking for specific cause and effect relationships at individual airports. Moreover, in fiscal year (FY) 2008, the FAA adopted the International Civil Aviation Organization’s (ICAO) standard definition of a runway incursion. This more broadly scoped definition provides for the inclusion of additional surface incidents that were previously not considered runway incursions. By including additional events to review and analyze, the FAA is gaining a greater understanding of the contributing factors to the occurrence of runway incursions as well as of the effectiveness of the various strategies being implemented to improve runway safety. With more data, the FAA can better prevent the occurrence of more serious runway incursions and accidents in the runway environment. Adjusting for the adopted definition of runway incursion, in FY 2008 there were 13 percent more runway incursions compared to the prior fiscal year. The FAA Office of Runway Safety immediately took note of the unfavorable trend. Despite all the efforts for improving runway safety that were in place, runway incursions were occurring at a greater rate than in prior years. As a result, the FAA proactively began to address this trend so as to make changes to prevent more close calls or an accident. Given the emergence of increasing runway incursions and armed with the Call to Action for Runway Safety previously initiated by the FAA in August 2007, it was time to re-emphasize to all its stakeholders the importance of the checks and balances in the system — heightened awareness, training, procedures, technology, a voluntary reporting 2009 Runway Safety Report 1 system, airport signage and markings — and to The 2009 FAA Annual Runway Safety Report work together to identify other places where the presents the FAA’s progress towards the Flight Plan system may be vulnerable to human error and goals and performance targets for runway safety. therefore create potential for runway incursions to The Report also articulates the various initiatives occur. that were part of the Runway Safety Management Led by the FAA, more than 40 aviation leaders Strategy to achieve these goals for FY 2005 from airlines, airports, air traffic control and pilot through FY 2008. In cases where sufficient time unions, and aerospace manufacturers agreed to an has passed since the implementation of a particular ambitious plan. The aviation community accom- strategy, runway incursion trends are presented plished all of the short term goals for cockpit and to demonstrate the relative contribution of these air traffic control procedures, training, upgraded strategies towards improving runway safety. airport markings, analysis of wrong runway depar- tures, and the initial development of a voluntary To learn more about the FAA’s plans for runway reporting program for air traffic controllers prior safety in FY 2009, the following FAA publications to the close of FY 2008 (see figure 1). The FAA are available at www.faa.gov: is monitoring FY 2009 runway incursion trends for signs of improvement as a result of these efforts n National Runway Safety Plan and also moving forward with plans for the mid- FY 2009 through FY 2011 and long-term goals defined as part of the Call to Action. n FAA Flight Plan 2009-2013 The Office of Runway Safety publishes this annual n FAA Portfolio of Goals 2009 report to educate and inform all aviation stakeholders of the ongoing efforts to improve runway safety n FAA Office of Safety, Safety Blueprint, as part of its Runway Safety Management Strategy. April 2009 Figure 1 Runway Safety Priorities and Progress September 2003 August 2007 June 2001 Introduction of AC November 2004 FAA institutes September 2009 June 1999 Runway incursion 120-74A to reduce New ICAO definition “Call to Action” OIG audit of FAA Runway Safety Program categorization conflicts with of runway incursions to improve “Call to Action” plan created by order 7210.58 established takeoff aircraft released runway safety complete 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 Runway safety October 2001 September 2003 October 2008 milestones from FAA establishes FAA Flight Plan Goals – establishment ICAO runway incursion June 1999 through an assessment of a quantitative goal to reduce incursions definition adopted June 2006 team to grade for the first time and recommends runway incursions global leadership role for FAA FY 2007 and FY 2008 FY 2009 through FY 2011 Crew resource management Runway safety areas yielded numerous National Runway Safety Plan Procedural reviews Engineered Materials Arresting runway safety Field-level outreach activities Runway status lights System (EMAS) accomplishments, “Hot-spot” labeling Airport surface detection Airport surface markings programs, and Outreach DVDs, multimedia, equipment, Model X Perimeter taxiways continuing initiatives brochures, and posters contributing to the Low-cost ground surveillance Airport analyses systems safety of the air traffic system Recurrent, refresher, and Electronic ight bag computer-based training Final approach runway signal 2 Measuring Runway Safety and Strategies for Continuous Improvement 2009 Runway Safety Report 3 FAA Measures Runway Safety Pilots safely completed more than 58 million takeoffs and landings at over 500 U.S. airports with air traffic control towers in FY 2008 alone. To continuously operate safely and efficiently, the National Airspace System (NAS) relies on clear communication and smooth coordination among more than 15,000 air traffic controllers, nearly 600,000 pilots, and a wide variety of airport vehicle operators. Runway safety is ultimately a shared responsibility. Pilots, air traffic controllers, ground crews,

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