ABSTRACT
Introduction The worst collision in aviation history was the result of a runway incursion. It occurred in 1977 at Tenerife and resulted in 583 fatalities. It is rare for a runway incursion to result in a fatal accident. Since 1st January 1990 there have been four fatal accidents resulting from runway incursions at airports with an operating air traffic control tower in the US. Nonetheless, runway incursions clearly pose significant threats to aviation safety and efficiency. Part One: The Problem What the Numbers Tell Us Table 3.1 Classification of runway incursions by year
Fiscal Year Operational Errors
Pilot Deviations
Vehicle/Pedestrian Deviations
Total Deviations
2000 83 247 75 405 2001 91 233 83 407 2002 75 190 73 338 2003 90 174 60 324
Source: Federal Aviation Administration, Office of Runway Safety (ARI)
Runway incursions are classified as to whether they are attributed to an error on the part of the air traffic controller (i.e., an operational error), pilot (i.e., a pilot deviation), a vehicle driver, or a pedestrian. The categories are not mutually exclusive; rarely, a single incursion is classified as more than one type of error. As can be seen in Table 3.1, while the numbers were stable for Fiscal Year 2000 and 2001, the numbers of reported runway incursions – both those attributed to pilot deviations and those attributed to controller (operational) errors were down by almost 20 per cent in 2002 and 2003. Also, the number of runway incursions
attributed to pilot deviations is consistently more than twice the number of reported runway incursions attributed to controller errors.
