The FAA has released a new report warning of potential runway safety issues at dozens of airports nationwide.
The report identifies more than 150 airports in the United States that are at increased risk for potential ground safety issues, such as runway incursions—near misses that occur when planes or vehicles aren’t positioned properly—or aircraft collisions.
The FAA calls the airports in the report “airport surface hot spots” where pilots and ground operations drivers should exercise heightened awareness in the runway area. The agency keeps a rolling list of such hot spots that it updates periodically.
Among the scores of airports identified as hot spots in the report are some of the busiest hubs in the country, including Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson (ATL), San Francisco (SFO), Chicago O’Hare (ORD), Los Angeles (LAX), and all three major New York City airports: John F. Kennedy (JFK), LaGuardia (LGA), and Newark (EWR).
Just days after the updated list was released on March 19, a fatal collision occurred on a runway at LaGuardia when a regional plane landing at the airport crashed into a Port Authority fire truck, killing two pilots and injuring dozens of passengers. The deadly incident happened in the early morning of March 23.
To help prevent similar incidents, the FAA has been encouraging busy airports to install transponders on runway vehicles so air traffic controllers can see the location of every vehicle on the tarmac, according to the AP. Vehicles with the tracking equipment will trigger a system warning in the event of a runway incursion.
LaGuardia has this system in place, but early investigations show that the fire truck wasn’t using a transponder at the time of the collision.
In addition to major commercial airports, the FAA report also includes risk information for military airports and facilities that handle private air travel.
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