Wait... You Mean It's NOT Wiring Bundles?

Despite the FAA's recent to-do over skipped fuselage fatigue inspections... and the cancellation of over 3,300 commercial airline flights due to (barely) out-of-spec wiring harnesses... officials say the agency shouldn't lose sight of real problems in the face of its headline-making crackdown on airline safety.

In other words, according to those authorities... and we're paraphrasing here... it's the runway incursions, stupid.

"Where we are most vulnerable at this moment is on the ground," NTSB Chairman Mark Rosenker recently noted. "To me, this is the most dangerous aspect of flying."

According to The New York Times, in a six-month period ending March 30 there were 15 serious incursions at US airports, compared with eight for the same period a year earlier. A 16th incursion occurred at Dallas-Fort Worth International on April 6, when a tug operator failed to hold short of an active runway... and pulled a Boeing 777 into the path of a landing airliner, which reportedly missed the tug by about 25 feet.

That incident is particularly egregious, given the FAA's much-touted 2005 installation of a runway lighting system intended to curb such incidents at DFW. Following successful trials at DFW and San Diego, the so-called Runway Status Lights are due to be installed at LAX and Boston's Logan International Airport later this year.

As ANN reported, such incursions were the topic of an industry hearing before the House Subcommittee on Aviation. The February meeting included representatives from the FAA and the air traffic controllers' union, as well as industry groups including the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association and Airports Council International-North America.

Those in attendance suggested a number of possible remedies, some more high-tech than others. ACI-NA noted close to 200 airports planned to repaint runway markings by the end of 2008, making runway hold-short lines more visible.

There are other solutions, including sophisticated in-cockpit warning systems. Such warning devices aren't required by the FAA, however, and some fear the agency's intent to vastly upgrade the nation's air traffic control network (NextGen) will delay widespread adoption of such technologies.

"You can fly an aircraft across the Pacific or across the Atlantic, and at any point in that journey you know where you are within about three meters, until you get on the ground," notes Randy Babbitt, former president of the Air Line Pilots Association. "If you’ve got a GPS in your car, you have infinitely more detailed information about where you are than in the cockpit of an airplane on the ground at Kennedy."

Others say it's just as well such advanced systems aren't mandated... as current devices aren't failure-proof, and most are prohibitively expensive. Nearly all runway incursions are the result of pilot error, not equipment faults -- leading many to suggest if pilots were more vigilant on the ground, there would be fewer problems.

FMI: www.faa.gov, www.ntsb.gov