Flying is several orders of magnitude safer than road travel, we all know that. Yet there is a curious element of commonality between those two modes of transport, representing a serious danger in both. Drivers who manage to get onto the wrong side of a motorway and aircraft or ground vehicles that blunder onto the runway creating a collision hazard…
Runway incursions make it into the news only if an accident ensues. This does not happen often but a few notable cases, like Tenerife in 1977 and Milan in 2001 will sound familiar to all of us. But the problem is real and much bigger than one would think at first sight.
On average there are two runway incursions of varying severity in Europe every day!
EUROCONTROL has been active in defining and implementing measures to reduce the incidence of these potentially catastrophic events for many years. The European Action Plan for the Prevention of Runway Incursions and the ICAO Manual for Preventing Runway Incursions are just two examples of text based products created as part of their efforts.
From CD to portal
To make use of electronic information distribution’s power, EUROCONTROL commissioned a series of products ranging from dedicated CDs to a complete Runway Incursion Prevention Portal, all designed and produced by BluSky Services (the owners of this blog).
The first CD, which earned a Merit Award in the 2004 Trans European Technical Communication Competition, covered the subject of runway incursion prevention from the specific viewpoints of pilots, air traffic controllers and ground vehicle drivers. The immersive environment provided separately for each of the three groups ensured that they all realised how mistakes were made and how the other group often had no means to do anything about them. The need to work together was amply emphasized throughout.
This CD was followed by a more limited version for use by instructors. The material was reworked to facilitate its incorporation into own presentations and teaching material.
To ensure even wider accessibility and increase the information impact, in 2007 it was decided to create a EUROCONTROL Runway Incursion Portal, in effect a one-stop-shop for all incursion related information. This product is now available at www.eurocontrol.int/runwaysafety
The videos
A unique feature of the portal are the four videos, showing sample runway incursion incidents (all based on actual events). All of the videos show real life footage, with the actual incidents worked into them in a seamless way using special animation and combination techniques. The end result is stunning!
The videos are presented in two versions. One runs through the incident, the other is interactive, stopping at key moments and asking the users questions before proceeding. A full textual description of the event is also provided.
The four incidents were selected to cover the most frequent cases of runway incursions.
The quiz
One of the most popular features of the CDs has been the quiz. So it was only normal that it should become a part of the portal also. The quiz aims to help people learn things they thought they knew…
The questions are illustrated with real-life pictures and even movie clips, the answers should be easy for anyone controlling or flying aircraft or driving cars on airports. Yet, of those who took the quiz, 60 % failed (1 error or more)…
Incursion prevention from A to Z
Browsing through the portal, one can find relevant information of all kinds from the tasks of the Local Runway Safety Teams through training to available technological solutions.
If you need to evaluate how vulnerable your airport is to runway incursions, use the portal to find ARIA, the computer based assessment methodology that will help.
Quick facts and figures or the ICAO Manual and the European Action Plan are all just a single click away.
Take the portal with you!
Although having mobile internet connection is no rarity these days, having a copy of the portal on your laptop may be a good idea for times when you cannot connect.
You can order the whole portal from EUROCONTROL and it will work from your hard disk, videos and all. If you have a fast connection, you can also download it using the button on portal itself. The size is 94 MB so it may take a while to arrive.
Click here to download
Visit the portal
The Runway Incursion Prevention Portal is available at
www.eurocontrol.int/runwaysafety
Learn all you need about avoiding runway incursions and try the quiz. Leave a comment here if you manage to answer all questions correctly…
Excellent your information efforts highlighting specific subjects developed by Eurocontrol, in which commercial pressure on airport management can make serious obstacles!
Safety investments are generally accepted if mandatory or producing any kind of added value…
If not mandatory, experience has demonstrated that a strong business case is required to support such implementation.