Airport Tests Potentially Safer Runway System

Nov. 13, 2006 — -- At Chicago's O'Hare International Airport last week, a United Airlines Boeing 737 plane just barely averted a potentially fatal collision with an Airbus 320. Both of the aircraft were taxiing toward takeoff when one of the planes clipped another one's tail.

Flight 672, a Boeing 737, was bound for New York's LaGuardia Airport, carrying 110 passengers and Flight 732 was headed for Dulles International Airport, just outside the nation's capital. It was an Airbus 320 and had 96 passengers on board.

Luckily, no injuries were reported and little damage was done. But runway incursions -- incidents that involve an aircraft's taking off, taxiing or landing -- do not always end happily, nor are they rare occurrences.

In the last three weeks alone, there have been four runway incidents reported at airports across the country -- the one at O'Hare, two at Newark's Liberty International Airport and one at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport.

On Oct. 28, Continental Airlines Flight 1883, a Boeing 757 arriving in Newark from Orlando, Fla., landed on a taxiway, mistaking it for the parallel runway. There was no damage because the taxiway was empty.

Another disturbing incident took place two days later at Sea-Tac. Alaska Airlines Flight 61, a Boeing 737, took off from the wrong runway but then continued to Juneau, Alaska, rather uneventfully.

Not everyone has been so lucky however. On Aug. 29, 49 people were killed in a crash when Comair Flight 5191 took off from the wrong runway, a runway that wasn't long enough for the jet. The plane clipped trees and crashed into a field, bursting into flames. The co-pilot was the sole survivor.

According to Mark Rosenker, chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board, there have been more than 300 runway incursions so far this year, with 31 termed "serious" incursions.

The NTSB has long been working to improve runway safety and is set to release its Most Wanted List on Tuesday, noting the most critical transportation safety issues. Runway incursions will undoubtedly make the list once again.

Since the first list was released in 1990, runway incursions have been cited every year.