Reducing runway incursions at United States airports
is a top safety priority
for the Federal Aviation Administration or FAA.
To reduce the rate of runway incursions,
the FAA initiated the Runway Incursion Mitigation
or RIM Program in 2015 to improve airfield safety
at airport locations with a history of runway incursions.
The FAA has two additional videos describing the RIM Program
and the safety benefits of reducing runway incursions
available on the FAA RIM website.
As of September 2021, the FAA and its industry partners
mitigated 73 runway and taxiway RIM locations.
The continuous monitoring of RIM mitigated locations
measure both RIM Program impacts and the goal of reduction
or of elimination of incursions.
Performance metrics are essential
for assuring the program's effectiveness.
Determining the best option for mitigating a RIM location
requires the consideration of factors
such as incursion history,
recommendations of the local runway safety action team,
airfield rehabilitation plans,
and physical and operational constraints.
As a result, mitigations range from
minor adjustments in operational procedures
to intersection reconfigurations.
Three recent examples of mitigation
illustrate a few of the measures available.
The first example is a hotspot
at a major international airport.
The hotspot has a non-standard geometry.
The Taxiway Hotel-4 high-speed exit from Runway 9
leads directly to the holding position marking
for Runway 14-32.
Multiple incursions occurred
because aircraft crossed the Runway 14-32
holding position marking without clearance.
Airport staff determined that communication
from the air traffic control tower
was not sufficiently informing pilots
about the proximity of Runway 14-32
to the intersection of Taxiways Hotel and Hotel-4.
The communication was, exit Runway 9 on Taxiway Hotel-4
and join Taxiway Hotel and hold short of Runway 14-32.
As the geometry demonstrates,
once an aircraft entered Taxiway Hotel,
it already crossed the hold line for Runway 14-32.
To address this issue,
air traffic control revised the communication
to exit on Taxiway Hotel-4 and hold short of Runway 14-32.
No incursions have occurred at this hotspot
since revising the communication in 2019.
The second example is at a hotspot at a large hub airport,
which encompasses the intersection
of entrance Taxiway Romeo-1
and the landing thresholds for Runways 4 and 8,
creating an aligned taxiway leading to Runway 4.
This hotspot experienced multiple wrong runway events
at Runway 4.
A typical error consisted of an aircraft
assigned to takeoff Runway 8, but used Runway 4.
To mitigate this issue, the airport removed
the aligned taxiway for Runway 4 by installing
a taxiway shoulder, taxiway edge lights,
taxiway edge markings for Taxiway Romeo-1
and blast pad markings for Runway 4.
These measures eliminated the travel path
between the two runways and from Romeo-1.
No wrong runway events have occurred
since mitigation in 2018.
The third example is at a regional airport.
The intersections of Runways 24 and 20
had a non-standard and confusing geometry,
resulting in 11 runway incursions between 2013 and 2016.
Both runways shared the same holding position marking.
Occasionally, aircraft instructed to hold for Runway 20
continued to advance onto Runway 24.
The proximity of both runway ends also contributed
to wrong runway takeoff events.
To mitigate the issue, the airport closed Runway 24
and reconfigured the taxiway system
to provide standard taxiway access for Runway 20.
No runway incursions have occurred
since the mitigation in 2017.
Annually, the FAA evaluates mitigated RIM locations
to assess the effectiveness of mitigation actions.
In 2020, the frequency of incursions
at mitigated RIM locations dropped 83%
when compared to incursion incidents prior to mitigation.
In partnership with airports and airport users,
the FAA leads the world in analyzing runway incursion data,
identifying the conditions contributing to runway incursions
and implementing safety improvements.
The results of the FAA's RIM Program make it
one of the FAA's most successful safety programs.
The success is only possible with the strong support of
and collaboration with airports and other industry partners.
Working together with these stakeholders,
the FAA continues improving runway safety
both now and in the years ahead.