FAA moves to reduce odds of runway collisions

WASHINGTON – The Federal Aviation Administration announced a series of runway safety initiatives Monday designed to avoid the types of conditions that led to a 2006 crash in Lexington, Ky., that killed 49 people and two recent near-collisions at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York.

The FAA’s measures include installing more than $400 million worth of runway status lights at major airports; the lights would warn pilots when it is unsafe to cross or enter a runway. The agency expects to award a contract this fall to install the runway light systems at 22 large airports over the next three years.

The FAA also hopes to provide up to $5 million to test cockpit displays that would give pilots the most up-to-date information on runway conditions.

“Severe runway incursions are down,” FAA Administrator Robert Sturgell said in a statement. “And we’re putting technology and procedures in place to keep it that way. We’re making changes on the runway and in the cockpit that are going to make a significant difference.”

In the past, the FAA and other transportation agencies have used the National Transportation Safety Board’s suggestions as a guidepost for change. But the pace of that change frustrates some safety board members and transportation experts.

“This is a step in the right direction, but it is not going to cure the problem of runway incursions,” Robert Sumwalt, vice chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board, said of incidents in which people or craft stray into the takeoff or landing fields.

Seattle-Tacoma International Airport is among those where runway status lights will be deployed.