India’s Director General of Civil Aviation (DGAC) has issued an Air Safety Circular, detailing strategies for the prevention of runway incursions, in the wake of last month’s incident at Tokyo’s Haneda Airport.
Noting that the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) places runway incursions among the five highest-risk categories that must be addressed to mitigate the risk of aviation fatalities, the DGAC has also identified runway incursions as a National High Risk Category of occurrence in the National Aviation Safety Plan.
Analysis of five years of runway incursions occurring in India has highlighted three causative factors: incorrect instructions issued by ATC, loss of pilot situational awareness, and failure of pilots to obtain clearance to enter the runway. Taking these into consideration, the DGAC’s mitigation strategy includes a range of actions: from emphasizing the importance of standard ICAO phraseologies, adopting correct read-back procedures, and minimizing ‘heads-down’ flight deck activity whist taxiing.
Additionally, the DGAC recommends that pilots complete refresher training on aerodrome signage and markings; adding that ‘aerodrome operators should develop and introduce procedure to significantly reduce vehicular movements on the maneuvering area during low visibility/bad weather conditions’.
The report concludes that the CAR Section 4 Section A Part 1-mandated Runway Safety Team (present at all licensed aerodromes) should be regularly carrying out ICAO runway safety maturity assessments, and ‘as part of safety communication, aerodrome operators should develop [a] mechanism for sharing critical safety information among RSTs’.
DGAC circular details mitigation strategies for runway incursion risk
