President's Perspective

Incursions Can Be Avoided

Everyone knows that there's no substitute for experience and learning from mistakes. That's as true in aviation as in any other field of endeavor. But in aviation, I'd just as soon learn from the mistakes of others, not my own. That's why many pilots faithfully study aviation accident reports, hoping to find kernels of truth that will keep us from making the same mistakes, particularly if they're big mistakes.

I study those reports, too. One that sticks in my mind was the worst aviation accident ever in terms of lives lost. It wasn't caused by a midair collision, or CFIT (controlled flight into terrain), or even loss of control in a thunderstorm?all things pilots try very hard to avoid. No, it wasn't even in the air. It happened on the ground in the Spanish Canary Islands in 1977 and involved two loaded Boeing 747s.

That "runway incursion," as investigators called it, took 583 lives in a horrible accident on the runway at Tenerife. On a foggy day, one of the big Boeings had not yet cleared the active runway and was hit by the other on its takeoff roll.

As I have mentioned previously in this column, reported runway incursions are on the rise. Some 429 incursions were recorded in 2000, over 100 more than the previous year. Reducing runway incursions has been on the National Transportation Safety Board's "Top Ten" list of most wanted aviation safety improvements for a decade, but just last year the NTSB changed its opinion of progress toward a solution from "acceptable" to "unacceptable."

The current high profile of runway incursions also gives us general aviation pilots an unwarranted black eye in the media. A report released in January by the U.S. Department of Transportation Office of the Inspector General left the general public with the distinct impression that we're a menace to the safety of airline passengers everywhere. In that report, officials said that "small private airplanes" were the cause of most runway conflicts. GA aircraft were involved in about 71 percent of last year's runway incursions.

Not bad when you consider that the GA aircraft fleet makes up well over 90 percent of all aircraft flying today.

Nonetheless, accidents caused by runway incursions are among the most preventable, and with AOPA's financial support our sister organization, the AOPA Air Safety Foundation (ASF), has just pioneered a new high-tech way to help you learn ways to avoid runway incursions.

It's called the ASF Runway Safety Program and is available free to all pilots on the AOPA Web site ( www.aopa.org/asf/runway_safety/). This fast-paced course features bright, active-motion graphics to explain safe ground operations, concentrating on towered airports. It encourages pilots to exercise judgment by posing task-related questions. Once a pilot selects a response from a list of multiple-choice answers, the program shows a full explanation of the correct response.

Unlike more traditional paper-bound education programs, the innovative ASF Runway Safety Program uses true interactivity to keep pilots involved and learning. The course, which uses real-life situations to point out operations with high potential for runway incursions, is divided into three parts: an arrival at Long Beach Airport in California, a departure from Pittsburgh International Airport, and a quiz. Realism is enhanced by audio of ATIS and ATC communications in each location. Pilots who successfully complete the ASF Runway Safety Program may print out an official graduation certificate suitable for framing.

This innovative Runway Safety Program is just one example of ASF's leadership in research and education for all general aviation pilots. It's one of the reasons that the overall GA accident rate has fallen dramatically since ASF was created in 1950. That year, there were a reported 46.6 GA accidents per 100,000 hours flown; in 1999 (the last year for which accurate statistics are available), the rate had dropped to just 7.06 GA accidents per 100,000 hours flown.

So enjoy ASF's free Runway Safety Program online, and then go out and take runways with confidence. Remember, good pilots are always learning.