Fortunately for those of us who fly, runway incursions that cause accidents are relatively rare. But thats not to say incursions themselves are rare: Runway blunders have become an everyday thing, so much so that NASAs Aviation Safety Reporting System (ASRS) has thousands of incident reports best described as coulda-beens. We recently reviewed an intriguing report on this subject delivered to the 288
Runway Incursions: Failed Expectations
Fortunately for those of us who fly, runway incursions that cause accidents are relatively rare. But thats not to say incursions themselves are rare: Runway blunders have become an everyday thing, so much so that NASAs Aviation Safety Reporting System (ASRS) has thousands of incident reports best described as coulda-beens. We recently reviewed an intriguing report on this subject delivered to the [IMGCAP(1)]International Symposium on Aviation Psychology in Dayton, Ohio, last April by Dr. Ed Wischmeyer, an aviation researcher and contributor to our sister publication, KITPLANES. Wischmeyer mined some 2000-plus ASRS reports collected between January 2003 and January 2006. His search criteria sought out reports on ground conflict and ground incursion incidents. This search yielded 1049 relevant reports, 723 of which were from turbine operators and 326 from smaller piston aircraft on personal or instructional flights.
Key Takeaways:
- Runway incursions are frequent "blunders" primarily caused by a complex interplay of misaligned expectations between pilots and air traffic controllers, further exacerbated by deficiencies in airport design, signage, and communication.
- A study of over 1000 ASRS reports revealed key contributing factors across five categories: flight crew, controller, information, communications, and airport design, highlighting significant discrepancies in understanding procedures, layouts, and clearances.
- Meaningful improvements to reduce runway incursions require a holistic, industry-wide commitment to system-based solutions, integrating improvements across all operational components (ATC, flight crews, airport infrastructure) rather than isolated fixes.
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