Thursday, January 23, 2020

Runway Incursion Mitigation Fiscal Year 2019 Annual Summary Rep

DOT/FAA/TC-20/05 Authors: Vitagliano, Lauren; Debban, Steven; Healey, Joseph

Runway Incursion Mitigation Fiscal Year 2019 Annual Summary Rep

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) defines a runway incursion (RI) as “any occurrence at an aerodrome involving the incorrect presence of an aircraft, vehicle, or person on the protected area of a surface designated for the landing and takeoff of aircraft.” These occurrences, including wrong runway landings and takeoffs, remain a top airport safety concern for the FAA. Research shows that airport geometry can contribute to runway incursions. The FAA provides airports with guidance on recommended taxiway layouts in both Advisory Circular 150/5300-13 and Engineering Brief Number 75. Airport layouts not conforming to these recommendations may lead to pilot confusion and ultimately, runway incursions. The FAA launched the Runway Incursion Mitigation (RIM) program in fiscal year (FY) 2015 in an effort to mitigate the nonstandard geometry factors present at airport locations that experienced a high number of runway incursions. 

The FAA maintains a RIM program database updated on an annual basis, including only towered airports. During each annual update, all runway incursions and surface incidents (pilot deviation (PD) and vehicle/pedestrian deviation (V/PD)) from the previous calendar year (CY), including wrong surface landings and takeoffs, are georeferenced in the geographic information system database. An annual review of the layout of each airport determines if locations with previously identified nonstandard geometry characteristics have changed and/or been mitigated. New locations with nonstandard geometry characteristics are also identified. If a location has three or more runway incursions in a single CY or an average of one runway incursion per year since the program began, it is considered for inclusion in the RIM inventory.

This report captures the RIM program summary through FY19, annual updates, and current inventory. Since initiation of the RIM program in FY15, a total of 6445 runway incursions (PD and V/PD) and 239 nonstandard geometry locations were added to the database, bringing the total to 11544 runway incursions and 6275 nonstandard geometry locations. At the end of FY19, there were 134 locations in the RIM inventory at 76 airports and 44 locations mitigated since the program’s inception. Airports utilized a variety of mitigation strategies to eliminate the problematic geometry characteristics or reduce their effect at these locations. Mitigation strategies include modifications to airport geometry, changes to lighting, markings, or signage, or changes to procedures or operations.

DOT/FAA/TC-20/05 

Authors: Vitagliano, Lauren; Debban, Steven; Healey, Joseph

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