During the Foundation’s Singapore Aviation Safety Seminar (SASS) earlier this month, I was surprised to learn during one of the presentations that reducing runway incursion and excursion rates was a relatively simple task. I know that civil aviation authorities, airports and aircraft operators around the world have focused a great deal of effort and resources on reducing runway safety–related events, so I was keen to learn to the solution.
According to the SASS speaker, Michael Watkins, senior air traffic representative – Asia Pacific, for the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration, if you want to reduce the rate, just stop reporting occurrences. Without any reports, the rate quickly falls to zero.
Of course, Watkins was kidding. He was making a point about the importance of having a reporting culture and about where safety professionals should focus their efforts. Lowering the rate of runway excursions seems like a laudable goal, but what we really want to do is lower the ri…
