Runway safety is concerned with reducing harm that could occur on an aircraft

runway According to the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), a runway is a "defined rectangular area on a land aerodrome prepared for the landing and takeoff of aircraft". Runways may be a man-made surface (often asphalt, concrete ...

. Safety means avoiding incorrect presence ( incursion) of aircraft, inappropriate exits (

excursion An excursion is a trip by a group of people, usually made for leisure, education, or physical purposes. It is often an adjunct to a longer journey or visit to a place, sometimes for other (typically work-related) purposes. Public transportation ...

) and use of the wrong runway due to confusion. The runway condition is a runway's current status due to meteorological conditions and air safety.

Definitions of runway accidents

Several terms fall under the flight safety topic of runway safety, including incursion, excursion, and confusion. Terms such as runway event or runway accident are used for such incidents.

Runway incursion

Runway incursion A runway incursion is an aviation incident involving improper positioning of vehicles or people on any airport runway or its protected area. When an incursion involves an ''active'' runway being used by arriving or departing aircraft, the poten ...

involves an aircraft, and a second aircraft, vehicle, or person. It is defined by

ICAO The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO, ) is a specialized agency of the United Nations that coordinates the principles and techniques of international air navigation, and fosters the planning and development of international a ...

and the U.S. FAA 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 take off of aircraft."FAA Runway Safety
Retrieved 2009-04-02

Runway excursion

Runway excursion A runway excursion is a runway safety incident where an aircraft makes an inappropriate exit from the runway. Runway excursions include runway overruns, where an aircraft is unable to stop before it reaches the end of the runway. Runway excursion ...

is an incident involving only a single aircraft, where it makes an inappropriate exit from the runway. This can happen because of pilot error, poor weather, or a fault with the aircraft. A runway overrun is a type of excursion where the aircraft is unable to stop before the end of the runway. Runway excursion is the most frequent type of landing accident, slightly ahead of runway incursion."Runway excursion
Flight Safety Foundation" FlightGlobal.com, Retrieved 2008-12-14. For runway accidents recorded between 1995 and 2007, 96% were of the 'excursion' type.

Confusion

Runway confusion is when a single aircraft uses the wrong runway, or a

taxiway A taxiway is a path for aircraft at an airport connecting runways with aprons, hangars, terminals and other facilities. They mostly have a hard surface such as asphalt or concrete, although smaller general aviation airports sometimes use gravel ...

, for takeoff or landing. Examples of runway confusion incidents include

Singapore Airlines Flight 006 Singapore Airlines Flight 006 (SQ006/SIA006) was a scheduled Singapore Airlines passenger flight from Singapore Changi Airport to Los Angeles International Airport via Chiang Kai-shek International Airport (now Taiwan Taoyuan International Airp ...

Comair Flight 5191 Comair Flight 5191 (marketed as Delta Connection Flight 5191 under a codeshare agreement with Delta Air Lines) was a scheduled United States domestic passenger flight from Lexington, Kentucky, to Atlanta, Georgia. On the morning of August 27, 2006, ...

and

Air Canada Flight 759 On July 7, 2017, an Airbus A320-211 operating as Air Canada Flight 759 was nearly involved in an accident at San Francisco International Airport in San Mateo County, California, United States. The flight, which originated at Toronto Pearson I ...

Monitoring of runway safety

The U.S. FAA publishes an annual report on runway safety issues, available from the FAA website. New systems designed to improve runway safety, such as

Airport Movement Area Safety System Airport surveillance and broadcast systems are a set of runway-safety tools that display aircraft on and near an airport. Airport Movement Area Safety System The Airport Movement Area Safety System (AMASS) visually and aurally prompts tower cont ...

(AMASS) and

Runway Awareness and Advisory System The Runway Awareness and Advisory System (RAAS) is an electronic detection system manufactured by Honeywell Aerospace, that notifies aircraft flight crews on the ground of their position relative to their allocated runway. Overview According to H ...

(RAAS), are discussed in the report. AMASS narrowly prevented a serious collision in the

2007 San Francisco International Airport runway incursion The 2007 San Francisco International Airport runway incursion occurred around 1:36 p.m. Pacific Time Zone, PDT on May 26, 2007 when SkyWest Airlines (operating as United Express) Flight 5741, an Embraer EMB 120 Brasilia turboprop aircraft, ...

. In the 1990s the U.S. FAA conducted a study about a civilian version of 3D military

thrust vectoring Thrust vectoring, also known as thrust vector control (TVC), is the ability of an aircraft, rocket, or other vehicle to manipulate the direction of the thrust from its engine(s) or motor(s) to control the attitude or angular velocity of the ve ...

to prevent jetliner catastrophes “Multiaxis Thrust Vectoring Flight Control Vs Catastrophic Failure Prevention”, Reports to U.S. Dept. of Transportation/FAA, Technical Center, ACD-210, FAA X88/0/6FA/921000/4104/T1706D, FAA Res. Benjamin Gal-Or, Grant-Award No: 94-G-24, CFDA, No. 20.108, Dec. 26, 1994; "Vectored Propulsion, Supermanoeuvreability, and Robot Aircraft", by Benjamin Gal-Or, Springer Verlag, 1990, , 3-540-97161-0. Some instruments for runway safety include ILS, LLWAS, Microwave landing system, Transponder landing system, as well as

Meteorological conditions

The "runway condition" is a runway's current status in relation to current meteorological conditions and air safety. *Dry: the surface of the runway is clear of water, snow or ice. *Damp: change of color on the surface due to moisture. *Wet: the surface of the runway is soaked but there are no significant patches of standing water. *Water patches: patches of standing water are visible. *Flooded: there is extensive standing water. According to the JAR definition, a runway with water patches or that is flooded is considered to be contaminated.

References

{{Reflist Aviation safety Airport engineering Airport infrastructure