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Flight History

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Runway Incursion Prevention
Lorenzo Stewart
Academy College

Runway Incursion Prevention

Ground controllers use a team communication effort to ensure that support vehicles and aircraft that are taxiing remain clear of active runways. There are many types of safety systems that are in place to help prevent runway incursions, for instance runway lighting or signage that identifies a runway or a hold short point. I will cover just a few of these basic communication systems and how they have progressed from their first implementation to their modern day counterparts. Communication is currently believed to be the weakest link in aviation systems, so let’s identify aviation safety’s strong areas.
Lighting is simple and resilient system and perfect way to make a purposed area stand out from another area while identifying the boundaries of both. This system is proven in day and night condition as well as poor weather and low visibility situations. There are several types of lighting used on an airport, the first type is runway edge lighting these lights are the industry standard located on either side of the runway and are elevated by a short metal pole to help clear the grass or snow the lights are spaced at intervals of 200 feet and out line the full length of the runway. These lights are white in color and use a special lens called a Frensel lens this unique lens is designed to concentrate the light just above the horizon of the runway for maximum effectiveness. At each end of the runway are threshold lights these lights are two sided one half green and the other red. When aircraft on approach see these lights the green side shows the beginning of the runway and red shows the end, the runway is also often embedded with lights that designate the touchdown area that extends from the landing threshold to 3,000 feet down the runway.

Runway Incursion Prevention

Also embedded are the runway centerline lights which contain directional lights that are white until the last 2,000 feet of the runway where the then alternate red and white till the last 1,000 feet those are all red. Additional taxi way edge lighting is used to define turn off areas and areas that intersect the runway these lights are extremely important because of the number of deadly accidents that have happened because of aircraft that have crossed into runways that were active. Sadly the most deadly accident in aviation history was a runway incursion that took the lives of 583 people in 1977 at Teneriefe airport in the Canary Islands due to low visibility and poor communication (Wikipedia) 2012. There have been advances in technology in communications and surface detection radar to help keep a situation like that from ever developing again. Increases in airport ground activity means that the potential for runway incursions is an ever increasing threat that will require constant dedicated attention. As well as the implementation of the new communication standards that don’t allow for a radio transmission to overlap another. The Federal Aviation Administration has also begun the process of deployment of visual and audio alarms, known as Safety Logic that will assist ASDE-X by alerting controllers to possible collisions or runway incursions (Wikipedia) 2012. Surface detection radar is the greatest tool for tracking all movement on the surface of the runway other than line of sight and it allows a team effort in the prevention of ground incursions. Since a ground incursion can involve more than just aircraft, support vehicles of all sorts from food trucks to baggage trains now are tracked with the same priority as an aircraft.

Runway Incursion Prevention

The runway environment has evolved from an open field or farm land to a dedicated site designed for takeoff and landing of aircraft this made safety measures available to all that used the area but it also concentrated air traffic to certain areas. Airports had begun using lights in the late 1920s, when landing fields were marked with rotating lights so they could be found after dark. In the early 1930s, airports installed the earliest forms of approach lighting (Kormans) 1996. These first efforts were the humble beginnings in the efforts to increase airport safety and help to set an environment of safety that still persists today, these safety measures are here to prevent loss of life and costly repairs or property loss from ground incursions. I believe that in the future many advances in airport safety systems will continue to develop and be implemented.

References 1. http://www.centennialofflight.gov/essay/Government_Role/landing_nav/POL14.htm 2. Komons, Nick. Bonfires to Beacons. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1989. 3. Clausing, Donald J. Aviator's Guide to Navigation. Blue Ridge Summit, Pa.: Tab Books, 1992. 4. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tenerife_airport_disaster

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