Goodies for the fight against runway incursions
On 24/01/2011, in Life around runways, by steve
Although we hear the word runway excursion more often these days than runway incursion, these latter remain a problem and constant efforts are required to maintain the awareness of the dangers involved in stumbling on an active runway without clearance.
Training of pilots, air traffic controllers and vehicle drivers is essential of course. Additionally, posters in the crew room as well as folders and flyers on desks a great help for any runway incursion prevention campaign.
A while ago we created designs for bumper stickers you can put on airport vehicles, making the dangers of runway incursion visible in yet another powerful way.
We would like to share these designs with you. Feel free to use them at your airport. You can also read more about runway incursions here.
Even the bull stops at a red stop bar...
No question...
Click here to read the full article
Aircraft based tools in the fight against runway incursions
On 06/04/2010, in Life around runways, by steve
Aircraft-based airport surface traffic indications and alerting systems
This is an edited version of the presentation made at the recent ESAVS 2010 conference by Doug Arbuckle of the FAA. Coauthors of the paper were David E. Gray of FAA, Peter Moertl of Mitre Corporation and Jim Duke of SAIC. You can download the original text of their paper here and the slides here.
Introduction
As discussed before, runway incursions and collisions is a major area of concern world-wide. There are on average more than two runway incursion events per day in Europe alone and the situation in the United States is similarly serious. The US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has on its most wanted list a system to “give immediate warnings of probable collisions/incursions directly to cockpit flight crews.”
In our previous two articles we covered the visual tools for preventing runway incursions (RWSL and FAROS) and the communications related causes of runway incursions. In this third article we will look into aircraft based airport surface traffic indications and alerting systems being developed in the US as a further line of defense against runway incursions.
The background
As you may be aware, in the US two different data links have been adopted for ADS-B: 1090 MHz Extended Squitter (1090 ES) and the 978 MHz Universal Access Transceiver (UAT). Given that the international community has agreed to the use of the 1090 ES link, most air transport and international business aircraft are expected to equip with this link; the UAT link is expected to be primarily used by general aviation aircraft whose operations are confined to the US. The US is implementing uplink services on both links. One such uplink broadcast service is Traffic Information Service-Broadcast (TIS-B). TIS-B derives traffic information from one or more ground-based surveillance sources and uplinks this traffic information to ADS-B-equipped aircraft, enabling them to receive position reports about non-ADS-B-equipped aircraft; this service supports the transition period to full ADS-B equipage in the NAS. ADS-R is another uplink broadcast service which rebroadcasts ADS-B messages received from aircraft on one link to nearby aircraft broadcasting on the other link, making it possible for all ADS-B-equipped aircraft to receive the information being transmitted on the other link.
Click here to read the full article
The communications related aspects of runway incursions
On 31/03/2010, in Life around runways, by steve
More than two incursions a day…
Few other incidents return with the grim and persistent regularity of runway incursions. A lot of effort by all concerned has resulted in a reduction of the total number of incidents but there are still, on average, more than two runway incursions in Europe per day. Clearly, there remains a lot of work to be done.
But what exactly is a runway incursion? According to the definition provided by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) a runway incursion is “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 take-off of aircraft.”
Of course the words “incorrect presence” cover a wide range of possibilities from part of an aircraft sticking into the protected area to a vehicle or aircraft being entirely in the path of an aircraft landing or taking off. The dangers need no explaining… The reasons why highly trained professionals like pilots and controllers and less well trained but still “aerodrome aware” vehicle drivers make mistakes leading to runway incursions provide a telling story with roots in human psychology, engineering, traffic design, information technology and one may dare to say, on occasion Murphy’s law.
Click here to read the full article
New tools in the arsenal to prevent runway incursions – RWSL and FAROS
On 16/03/2010, in Life around runways, by steve
Although take-offs and a landing from and on taxiways had filled the news recently, the problem of runway incursions is much more of a problem and in spite of major efforts on the part of all concerned, pilots, air traffic controllers and ground vehicle drivers, it refuses to go away. Not that there are no achievements but in Europe there are more than 2 incidents on average per day and an airport like Charles De Gaulle in Paris has in excess of 30 runway incursions per year! The situation is not much different in the US either.
We all know the traditional warnings that come into view as we approach the runway. Red stop bars across the taxiway, flashing yellow lights on the side, markings and signs… all meant to say: beware, you are approaching a dangerous place, proceed with care. The same message is repeated countless times during basic and recurrent training yet aircraft and ground vehicles regularly blunder onto the runway, flashing lights and stop-bars notwithstanding.
The FAA and Lincoln Labs in the US have developed a new set of tools called the Runway Status Lights (RWSL) System and Final Approach Runway Occupancy Signal (FAROS). Both systems use outside light cues to warn pilots and drivers of unsafe conditions while also providing appropriate warnings in the control tower.
In this day of digital link communications and moving map displays on board many aircraft, why would anyone want to introduce a system that uses light signals as a warning? If pilots and drivers ignored the lit stop bar and the yellow flashing lights, will they heed this new system?
Click here to read the full article
Runway incursion prevention – know your hot spots
On 11/12/2009, in SKYbrary News, by steve
News from EUROCONTROL’S aviation safety knowledge base SKYbrary
It is well known to pilots and air traffic controllers alike that some parts of the runway/taxiway complex at aerodromes seem to attract incidents. As if they were jinxed in some way, mistakes are made regularly at these singularities of the airport universe.
On roads internationally standardized traffic signs are used to warn us of falling rocks, of stray cattle or deer chasing their mates. How can we warn of the dangerous spots at airports?
Click here to read the full article
Videos that show the impossible
On 29/10/2009, in Life around runways, by steve
Aircraft on the runway!
The company bringing you Roger-Wilco, BluSky Services is also well known for its multimedia and video products as well as its web design prowess.
Some of our videos were created for clients who wanted to show the impossible. Like runway incursions as they were happening. Using cutting edge technology, we have recreated a number of actual events in minute detail and even created interactive versions where the show stops at the critical moments so that students can discuss what had just gone wrong. We do show them the impossible to help them avoid it ever happening again.
When the engine sound saved the day...
Click here to read the full article
Runway incursions – a portal full of help
On 17/08/2009, in Life around runways, by steve
Flying is several orders of magnitude safer than road travel, we all know that. Yet there is a curious element of commonality between those two modes of transport, representing a serious danger in both. Drivers who manage to get onto the wrong side of a motorway and aircraft or ground vehicles that blunder onto the runway creating a collision hazard…
Runway incursions make it into the news only if an accident ensues. This does not happen often but a few notable cases, like Tenerife in 1977 and Milan in 2001 will sound familiar to all of us. But the problem is real and much bigger than one would think at first sight.
On average there are two runway incursions of varying severity in Europe every day!
Click here to read the full article
