FAA Spends $100 Million to Help Prevent Runway Accidents

[visibility3miles]

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/23/business/faa-airports-100-million.html

[please move elsewhere if needed]

The Federal Aviation Administration said on Tuesday that it had awarded more than $100 million to a dozen airports to help prevent accidents after a series of near collisions this year. The money is intended to reduce “incursions,” in which planes, vehicles and people mistakenly occupy or obstruct runways.The money will fund changes that include building new paths, or taxiways, for planes to move around airports and the installation of lights to help better guide pilots. Tucson International Airport will receive the largest award, about $33 million, to build a taxiway and rebuild a runway. San Diego International Airport will receive $24 million to build a new taxiway.

“Sometimes the best technology is concrete, and that’s why some of what you’re seeing are the construction of these end-around taxiways that mean one less potential conflict point where a plane lines up,” Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said at a news conference on Tuesday.

A series of jarring incursions early in the year received widespread attention. In one incident at Kennedy International Airport, in New York, a plane had to abort taking off because another had crossed dangerously close to it. In another episode, at Austin-Bergstrom International Airport in Texas, a pilot had to abort landing because another plane was using the runway to take off.

In March, the F.A.A. held a safety summit to address the incursions and other safety concerns. It also issued a bulletin to airlines (https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/22/business/faa-airlines-near-misses.html), airport operators and workers, calling on carriers to exercise caution in carrying out operations. The National Transportation Safety Board is holding an event on Tuesday to discuss incursions.

There have been about 550 runway incursions this year through April, up slightly from 530 during the same period last year, according to the F.A.A (https://www.faa.gov/airports/runway_safety/statistics/year/?fy1=2023&fy2=2022).Background: The aviation system has had many problems.Runway incursions have become a problem as people move on from the pandemic and spend more money on travel and other services that they avoided during the past few years.

But as demand has increased, airlines and government agencies have struggled to keep up. Around Christmas last year, Southwest Airlines canceled thousands of flights, stranding millions of travelers, after it failed to recover quickly from disruptions caused by frigid weather. Weeks later, the F.A.A. briefly paused all departures nationwide as it tried to resolve a technical problem.

Many experts have warned that airlines and the F.A.A., which controls the air traffic system, could struggle this summer, when the number of people flying could exceed its prepandemic high. Airline executives and F.A.A. officials have said they have made changes that should minimize disruptions in the coming months (https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/22/business/airlines-faa-summer-travel-meldtown.html).

[All hat and no cows]

The biggest threat to safety has been the Diversity Equity and Inclusion push started under Obama into the ATC ranks.. anytime you prioritize race over the best suited candidates regardless of race or gender, the consequences are both obvious and have now been manifested.

[Bergerie1]

Perhaps the FAA should try something like this. Similar systems were being trialled back in the early 2000s. But it needs an accident or some very severe incidents before anything is actually introduced.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qve5GMiNato

[Fursty Ferret]

Easy solution: assign departure runway with ATC clearance from KUSA or delivery.

As a pilot for a long-haul European carrier it’s my greatest dislike of US airfields. If you change our departure runway as we call for taxi and it’s not what we expect, it’s 10 minutes MINIMUM to recompute performance and load the FMS. Same as if you do it on taxi-out. There’s no point complaining that we’re now sat stationary while we complete the procedure when you could have told us an hour ago.

Even calling 15 minutes before push to get the runway doesn’t help, as it still changes unexpectedly. Lookin’ at you, ORD and SFO.

What else will help and won’t cost 100 million dollars?

- Not assuming that just because we have a daily scheduled flight we’re intimately familiar with the airport.
- Not giving taxi instructions at a thousand words-per-minute and then getting grumpy when you’re asked to repeat it. Publish standard taxi routes for departure and arrival.
- Not throwing a tantrum when we explain that the aircraft cannot physically land on the tiny preferred runway and ask for the longer parallel. “It’ll cause a delay”. Well, not as much as if you need to drag us out of the ditch at the end of the runway.
- Not punishing us for doing so by then making us wait 45 minutes to cross the landing runway afterward.
- Not expecting 180 kts to 4D and then launching into a barrage of abuse when it’s politely declined. Yeah, it can be done but I won’t have a job afterward.
- Enforcing basic phraseology standards. Honestly, it’s not cool to try to sound like Top Gun on the radio, it just confuses everyone else.

You will notice that these complaints can be fixed by exactly one group of people.

[eckhard]

Fursty_Ferret….:ok:….

[oceancrosser]

..If you change our departure runway as we call for taxi and it’s not what we expect, it’s 10 minutes MINIMUM to recompute performance and load the FMS. Same as if you do it on taxi-out…

10 minutes MINIMUM? What on earth are you doing? I’d say 2-3…

[Bergerie1]

Well said Fursty F! They just make a rod for their own backs. But, much more importantly, it reduces safety by inducing errors.

[FullWings]

10 minutes MINIMUM? What on earth are you doing? I’d say 2-3…
Depends on the aircraft and the methods of obtaining performance data and inputting it. On mine you can look at alternatives and print out a stack of different runways/departures to be used later if things change on the taxi out, but it puts another hole in the cheese at a time of high workload and distraction. Some types with fixed + ATM have ETs for almost every airport, which would also need re-briefing or affirmation. It’s perfectly doable but the point of the FAA spending $100m is to reduce the likelihood of runway accidents, so knowing the runway in advance on the gate would be a easy win in this respect.

[Stuart Sutcliffe]

Easy solution: ...............................

You will notice that these complaints can be fixed by exactly one group of people.
I might add: assign runways, both for departure and arrival, that have the extant met conditions, in particular the wind direction, as one of the primary factors in the choices.

Rather than the runway choices being heavily biased towards the undue influences of wealthy neighbourhoods whining about aircraft noise.

[oceancrosser]

Sadly $100 million dollars is not going to fix a whole lot of taxiways. And US ATCOs are probably not going to change much in what remains of my career. FF mentioned ORD and SFO. Yes, ORD is a zoo any day of the week, especially on the ground. Taxiing there IMHO can be the hardest part. How difficult is a “RWY HDG 5000 vectors to POINT” SID to brief? Granted SFO SIDs can be a lot more complicated. But in general I like the simple US SIDs, initial departure heading and vectors to a fix. Some European airports have a maze of departures for every single runway. LHR has detailed SIDs you never really fly, because one is assigned a heading until cruise level more or less.
Getting the runway and SID into the FMS on a Boeing takes seconds (dunno about Airbus). T/O perf calculation methods vary wildly between operators and I am sure some of those are unncessarily complicated. Finding the charts? Well if more than one runway are being used for departures per ATIS, the appropriate charts will already be on my “clip”.
Sure phraseology could improve. Much. But I also wish AMS controllers (specifically the ground controllers) used standard ICAO phraseology. You never know what to expect at AMS, and the have charted taxi directions, but use them anyway they want and do not specifically tell you.
And I am a European pilot.

[WillowRun 6-3]

That airport whose letters come from it having been an Orchard at one point - located in the Land of Lincoln - has been mentioned.

In the 1968 novel about a fictionalized version of that airport, ORD, an ATC emergency figures in the plot development (Part 1, section 9, p.82 of the (Dec. 1972) 22nd printing in paperback). The very next section of the novel deals with folks complaining about airport noise, urged on by a lawyer not quite respectable, to say the least.

The point is, some things get flashy publicity, and headlines -- like the lines of travelers snaking through zig-zag cordons waiting to pass through security checkpoints, pictures of which have adorned newspaper front pages lately. Summer travel season, woe is the industry, woe is the system. Last fall, EUROCONTROL held a conference, which I heard about, focused on applying to the industry and the system what VIper told Maverick at Viper's home on the seacoast, on a Sunday morning: "A good pilot is compelled to always evaluate what's happened so he [or she] can apply what [they've] learned." In other words, how to avoid the problems of Summer 2022 when the same season occurs... this year.

Many reports, by sources far more knowledgeable than this SLF/attorney, have pointed to FAA's need to shift Facilities and Equipment funding to operational needs, hence leaving the NOTAMs system to age, mellow, gain seniority... and ultimately break down. (Incidentally, recently I heard someone in the industry refer to Notices to Airmen and Airwomen - and the Earth did not stop turning!) The point is throwing money at these problems as described in the previous news article could be worthwhile. But heading into the summer season, AND with the lingering aftermath of the recent spate of incursions still a cause for high-level concern, is it not time for FAA (and its counterparts, where the same problems exist) to accelerate increased professionalism of all echelons of ATCO cadres? Perhaps it is the case that in the good number of years since President Reagan fired the PATCO controllers when they went out on strike, insufficient attention - and insufficient funding and planning - have been devoted to improving the professionalism of ATCOs . . . . FAA Reauthorization, anyone?

(For those unfamiliar with both Hailey's 1968 novel, Aiport, and the actual Chicago O'Hare International Airport, it long has had a connection to an Illinois Air National Guard KC-135 tanker wing, which type of aircraft features in the ATC emergency in the book. Happy Memorial Day.)

[Uplinker]

Fursty Ferret ; I can't find how to register a "like", but I completely agree that some ATC create a lot of problems by trying to run an airfield like an auction room; with their stupidly fast speaking, which only achieves confusion.

If they would simply slow right down and give measured, clear, instructions, using standard phrases, pilots would not get confused and ATC would actually achieve a faster workflow.

And, more to the point; a safer airfield.

Spend the money on ATC training and standards.

[procede]

At Atlanta Taxiway Whiskey already cost 82 million after Victor cost 42 million.

https://simpleflying.com/hartsfield-jackson-international-airport-unveils-new-end-around-taxiway/
https://simpleflying.com/atlanta-airport-taxiway-victor-explanation/