ABSTRACT
The Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA) mission is to maintain the safest and most efficient aerospace system in the world. The FAA has stated that runway safety is one of their top priorities, which encapsulates pilots, air traffic controllers, and airport vehicle drivers and workers (Federal Aviation Administration, June 2015[CM3]). FAA categorizes a runway incursion as a hazardous event that can occur in the Air Operations Area (AOA) that involves an incorrect presence of an aircraft, vehicle, or person in the protected area of a surface designated for the landing and takeoff of an aircraft (Federal Aviation Administration, June 2015). Runway Incursion is one of the most crucial issues in airport safety. Analysis into the underlying causes of why and how a runway incursion event occurs can be vital for the development of an effective prevention plan to reduce these occurrences. This research seeks to enhance the safety on the AOA by introducing a framework to reduce the potential of a runway incursion event. Moreover, this research aims to investigate various human causal elements (HCEs) that may have played a crucial role in why the occurrence took place. Furthermore, chi-square test of independence will be used in order to examine the independence between runway incursion types and location of a runway incursion event to see if a significant relationship exists. In addition, the HCEs will be examined using analysis of variance (ANOVA) in efforts to understand the primary causes of occurrence. Moreover, this research focuses on the event when people enter into restricted areas without Air Traffic Control (ATC) authorization and how this can be minimized by exploring the phenomena of the Internet of Things (IoT) through the use of automated technology. In addition, we want to investigate the economic feasibility of employing such systems compared to other solutions that may be possible. Also, this research seeks to investigate legal aspects in terms of liability when an occurrence arises. Also, this research plans to explore various case laws surrounding severe runway incursion incidents in efforts to understand the liability ownership of the incursion and put these results in a repository database to create one shared location at airports to be accessed by anyone who has a need for such information such as lawyers, pilots, and air traffic controllers to keep them informed when such an event arises. This research explores a framework to prevent runway incursions and increase safety and awareness in the aviation industry, while furthering knowledge and understanding on a broad front of emerging technologies.
