For Release: Wednesday, December 5, 2007
Contact: Jim Berard, 202-226-5064, jim.berard@mail.house.gov

NEWS from the T&I Committee

Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure

U.S. House of Representatives, 2165 Rayburn HOB, Washington, DC 20515

transportation.house.gov

Hon. James L. Oberstar (Minn.), Chairman

GAO: No Improvement in Runway Safety

Oberstar, Costello, Lautenberg release report, chide FAA

Washington - Three Congressional leaders on aviation safety today released a Government Accountability Office study showing that ground operations at the nation’s airports have seen no safety improvement over the past five years.

Rep. James L. Oberstar (Minn.), Chairman of the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, Rep. Jerry F. Costello (Ill.), Chairman of the Subcommittee on Aviation, and Sen. Frank R. Lautenberg (N.J.), a member of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, released the findings at a Capitol Hill news conference. The three requested the study in June of last year.

“The National Transportation Safety Board has included improving runway safety on its Most Wanted List since the list was established in 1990. While new technologies have come on line and are slowly being deployed to U.S. airports, serious runway incursions and other incidents continue to occur,” Oberstar said. “The GAO’s findings are distressing. Despite spending billions on runway safety over the last five years, the GAO found that the Federal Aviation Administration’s lack of coordination and leadership, technology challenges, the lack of data, and human factors-related issues have seriously hindered significant progress on runway safety.”

“What this report makes clear is that the FAA needs to take immediate steps to address its inattention to runway and taxiway safety,” said Costello. “I have been concerned for some time that the FAA is not adequately budgeting for safety programs and the lack of focus on runway and taxiway safety since 2001 underscores this problem. The House bill to reauthorize the FAA, H.R. 2881, provides $42 million for runway incursion reduction programs and $74 million for runway status light acquisition and installation over the four years of the bill. It also requires the FAA to refocus its Strategic Runway Safety Plan. We want to work with the FAA to maintain the safest air space in the world, and a first step is to make sure we have the necessary funding and personnel in place. Passing comprehensive legislation to reauthorize the FAA in the Senate and enacting the provisions in H.R. 2881 will accomplish this goal.”

“As passengers fly to visit family and friends this holiday season, they shouldn't have to worry about the safety of their flights.  Unfortunately, this report makes clear that the Bush Administration is cutting corners and failing to put passenger safety first,” Lautenberg said.  “A safe flight begins and ends on a safe runway, but the FAA is taking too many chances and ignoring too many red flags.  I plan on introducing legislation to refocus this Administration's priorities to ensure safer runways, safer airports and safer skies."

In brief, the GAO study found that
Runway incursions are increasing, and runway overruns and ramp safety are areas of concern. Preliminary data for fiscal year 2007 indicates that the overall runway incursion rate of 6.05 incursions per 1 million air traffic control operations is 12 percent higher than in 2006, and is nearly as high as the fiscal year 2001 peak of 6.1 incursions per 1 million air traffic control operations.

The FAA’s National Runway Safety Plan is out of date and FAA’s runway safety efforts are uncoordinated. The FAA’s Office of Runway Safety has not carried out its leadership role, which calls for coordinating and monitoring runway safety activities to ensure that goals are met through its National Runway Safety Plan, which was last released in 2002.

Controller fatigue may play a role in runway safety. Air traffic controllers at some of the nation’s busiest airports are working 6-day weeks due to staffing shortages.

Cost increases and delays have plagued deployment of runway safety technology. The Airport Surface Detection Equipment, Model X (ASDE-X), runway safety technology that is designed to alert air traffic controllers of potential collisions, has faced cost increases and schedule delays, and has experienced problems with its alerting function.

Data is unreliable. FAA lacks reliable runway and ramp safety data and the mechanisms to ensure that the data is complete.

The GAO has recommended that the FAA take several steps to enhance runway and ramp safety, including preparing a new National Runway Safety Plan, establishing a non-punitive voluntary safety reporting program for air traffic controllers, and increasing data collection and analysis.

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