NTSB To Host Runway Incursion Roundtable (Corrected)

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A week after the FAA struck a committee to discuss the state of aviation safety, the NTSB has announced it will host a roundtable discussion on the spate of serious runway incursions that occurred in the first quarter of the year. The four-hour morning discussion will be hosted by NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy on May 23 at NTSB headquarters in Washington. The board said in a news release the meeting will be open to the public and and recorded for download later. It will feature “safety experts from the aviation industry, labor, and government to discuss the current state of the runway incursion problem and possible solutions and next steps.” The release doesn’t name the experts.

“I look forward to hosting a candid assessment of what’s been done to prevent runway incursions in the years since our last event on the topic—and to spur meaningful, immediate action on the areas where we’re stalled,” said Homendy. “By proactively looking for ways to make our skies safer, this event reflects our agency’s commitment to meeting the same high standards we ask of others.” In the first three months of the year, at least six runway incursions involving airliners that resulted in some kind of diversion or go-around occurred at U.S. airports.

An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated that the meeting would be streamed online. It will be recorded and available later.

Russ Niles
Russ Niles is Editor-in-Chief of AVweb. He has been a pilot for 30 years and joined AVweb 22 years ago. He and his wife Marni live in southern British Columbia where they also operate a small winery.

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5 COMMENTS

  1. Just like another poster said on Paul B. article on the FAA committee. Quoting that infamous movie, “ we’ve got to protect our phoney/baloney jobs, harumph!”.

  2. Part of the reason for taxi mistakes: you get taxi instructions, then there’s silence. The “road signs” are often not good, the taxiways have nonstandard markings, burned-out lighting sometimes. Lines are are hard to see sometimes—night, snow, rain. The voices of each controller are different. Snowbanks. Radio chatter.

  3. When I retired from FAA 22 years ago, one of my last assigned missions had been going to safety meeting all over and presenting programs on runway incursions…..in addition to having that topic a part of every ATC teams’ weekly briefing. Put me in coach! I can repeat it all again if you wish!

  4. I’d much rather fly into South/Latin American single runway, mountainous terrain, no Doppler airports in marginal weather with ESL controllers than deal with the rapid fire, complex instructions from large US domestic airport controllers.

    Have your 1,500 hour FO ask ground in Atlanta to say again. I dare you. Tribal knowledge is required and expected and no amount of “green pages” or conferences will help that elephant in the room.

  5. I am familiar with two runway incursions (on video) that happened (two days in a row) March 2022 at the same airport, and for the same reason. Regional Jet vs Snow Plow at an uncontrolled airport.

    Fully configured, in the flare with the power at idle, the RJ Captain discovered the snow plow 2000 feet ahead and aborted the landing (let that picture sink in for a minute). Vis was 1.5 miles. Had the aircraft touched the surface (spoilers auto deploy) in 2 more seconds it would have been game over. 2 seconds…..

    As a FAAST Team Rep I filed a report with the FAA and I spoke with airport management. I copied the airline. Airport management blamed the airline and would not take responsibility for their unsupervised plow-truck on the runway at the exact scheduled arrival time of the airliner.

    In the FAA’s response to me (some 6 months after the fact) they pointed out that there was no problem and no violations. This letter leads me to the conclusion that without a violation there can be no accident resulting in death. I am soooo relieved! As my old friend Blake used to say about situations like this one, “sort of like a dog trying to bury a turd on a frozen lake”.

    I also learned that an operator of a snow plow, on an airport surface, is not required by the FAA to be drug screened (even at an FAR 139 airport). Go figure…….. Remember this the next time you are landing at a snow covered airport with reduced vis. Don’t worry, be happy….it won’t take long……the sign at the airport reads Welcome to our town, Welcome to Paradise. Now I know what it means.

    So now the folks that didn’t think there was a safety problem, because there was no violation, are gathering together to do what? Bury a few more….well you know……..

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