FAA: Rise in Numbers Is Due to Better Reporting

Dec. 2 — Hazardous runway incidents are up more than 22 percent over last year, according to the Federal Aviation Administration. The incidents — known collectively as “runway incursions” — are defined by the FAA as “an occurrence at an airport involving an aircraft, vehicle, person, or object on the ground that creates a collision hazard or results in a loss of separation [planes that get too close] with an aircraft taking off or intending to take off, landing, or intending to land.” So far this year, the FAA has reported 392 incidents (according to data available as of Friday) in which an aircraft, vehicle, person, or object on the ground caused a collision hazard. Last year, the FAA reported 321 incidents for the whole year. The FAA updates data on its Web site daily. But agency officials say the problem, though serious, is not necessarily getting worse. “We feel that the numbers are way up because of better reporting,” says FAA spokesman William Shumann. “This better reporting is due to the efforts in the past year or so of pilots, air traffic controllers and airport officials who are more aware of the threat of runway incursion.” The author of a recent study on runway incursions says that while the FAA’s explanation for the increase is plausible, it’s not the only possible one. “Is the increase made up of serious events? Or are they minor events that people previously wouldn’t have reported, because of a new openness in reporting, and a greater awareness of the problem?” asks Professor Arnold Barnett of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Barnett says it can take time to determine what the new numbers really mean. In a study released earlier this year, Barnett found that runway collisions at U.S. airports could kill 700-800 people and cause injury to 200 over the next 20 years.

http://abcnews.go.com/sections/us/DailyNews/runway001201.html

-- Doris (nocents@bellsouth.net), December 04, 2000