Runway incursion

A runway incursion is an incident where an unauthorized aircraft, vehicle or person is on a runway. This adversely affects runway safety, as it creates the risk that an airplane taking off or landing will collide with the object. It is defined by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) on April 27, 2006, as:

Any occurrence at an aerodrome involving the incorrect presence of an aircraft, vehicle, or person on the protected area of a surface designated for the landing and take-off of aircraft.

In October 2007, the Federal Aviation Administration dropped its own definition of "runway incursion" and adopted the above. The difference between the two was "that ICAO defines a runway incursion as any unauthorized intrusion onto a runway, regardless of whether or not an aircraft presents a potential conflict. For the FAA, an incident without an aircraft in potential conflict– such as an unauthorized aircraft crossing an empty runway– was defined as a 'surface incident' and not a runway incursion."

The Airport Surface Detection Equipment, Model X (ASDE-X) and the Airport Movement Area Safety System (AMASS) are computerized systems that are intended to alert air traffic controllers to the potential for a runway incursion.

Notable examples of runway incursion

• On 20 December 1972, North Central Airlines Flight 575 (a McDonnell Douglas DC-9) collided during its takeoff roll with Delta Air Lines Flight 954 (a Convair CV-880) while the CV-880 was taxiing across a fog-shrouded runway at O'Hare International Airport in Chicago, Illinois, killing 10 people and injuring 17.
• The Tenerife airport disaster in 1977 happened when a plane took off before it was supposed to and collided with another plane.
• 1984 Aeroflot Flight 3352, 11 October 1984: Airport maintenance vehicles on the runway while a Tupolev Tu-154B-1 is attempting to land in Omsk Russia. 174 passengers and 4 people on the ground are killed.
• 1994 TWA Flight 427/Superior Aviation Cessna 441, 22 November 1994: Cessna pilot error at Lambert-St. Louis International Airport. Pilot taxied to incorrect runway and was struck by departing TWA MD-80, 2 fatalities on the Cessna.
• On 16 November 1996,1996 United Express Flight 5925 was landing at Quincy Regional Airport when the pilot of a Beechcraft King Air started to take off on an intersecting runway. As the field was uncontrolled, the United Express pilots inquired whether the King Air was clear of the runways. They received no response except for a call from a Piper Cherokee saying they were holding short. The King Air and United Express collided at the intersection of the two runways killing all 12 on board Flight 5925 and the pilot and passenger of the Beechcraft King Air.
• On 1 April 1999, an Air China Boeing 747, Flight 9018, taxies onto an active runway at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport during the takeoff of Korean Air Flight 36, another 747. Flight 36 averts a collision by taking off early, missing the Air China aircraft by 75 feet. There were 8 people on the Air China jet, and 379 on the Korean flight.
• 1999 T. F. Green Airport runway incursion, 6 December 1999: In low visibility at night, the plane went down the wrong taxiway and ended on the runway just as another plane took off. No collision.
• Linate Airport disaster, 8 October 2001: Commercial airliner collided on take-off with a taxiing Cessna Citation.
• 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami aftermath: Banda Aceh 4 Jan 2005 : water buffalo on runway caused ground collision which seriously delayed relief flights.