Preliminary statistics indicate that 2023 was one of the safest years on record for commercial aviation, with no reported fatal accidents involving large commercial jet aircraft in regular service. But the lack of fatalities in scheduled service is only part of the story. In addition to fatal accidents involving other types of commercial operations, including scheduled turboprop aircraft operations, we saw a disturbing increase in the number of runway incursion events. In the United States alone, there were nearly two dozen occurrences, including one at Austin-Bergstrom International Airport in Texas last February, when a landing FedEx Boeing 767 nearly collided with a Southwest 737 that had just begun its takeoff roll on the same runway.
In the Austi…
