Preventing runway incursions and conflicts

Preventing runway incursions and conflicts is amongst the most critical problems in airport ground movement operations. Despite being on the NTSBʹs ‘Most Wanted’ list of desired safety improvements for over a decade now, it remains a persistent issue. The paper looks at some system architectures that may be used to prevent/reduce runway incursions. The existing approaches to the problem are looked into. We propose a new pseudo-series system architecture that not only provides the pilot/driver with an independent source of direct information for operations on/across the runway, but also keeps the controller in the loop so as to significantly reduce the chances of an operational error. It also addresses some of the shortcomings of the earlier approaches. The system ‘secures’ the runway before any takeoff /landing/crossing operations are to be cleared by the controller. The ‘securing’ of the runway is done based on an evaluation of the current traffic scenario and uses a simple logic. The concept may be easily extended for more realistic runway-taxiway configurations.