Runway Collisions 'high Risk' for Us Air Passengers

American airline passengers face a high risk of being involved in a catastrophic accident while their plane is on the airport runway, the congressional watchdog warned yesterday.

A mixture of tired, overworked air-traffic controllers, lack of coordination among agencies, and faulty and delayed technology has pushed runway incidents involving potential between-aircraft collisions back up to levels last seen in 2001.

This year there have been 370 runway incursions by aircraft, a rise of 12% on 2006.

Part of the problem is the volume of traffic. Last year 740 million passengers flew in the US, and the number is set to reach a billion by 2015.

But the report of the US government accountability office also points to institutional failure behind the rise in dangerous incidents. It points to the fact that the Federal Aviation Administration, which is in charge of safe handling of the increased traffic, has failed to prepare a safety plan for runways since 2002, even though it is meant to update its plans at least every three years. "The absence of coordination and national leadership impedes further progress on runway safety because no single office is taking charge," the report says.

One in five air traffic controllers were found to be working six-day weeks, and fatigue was at dangerous levels. The watchdog also found several examples of faulty technology, and the deployment of new warning systems was "years away".

Runway incursions can have serious consequences. There have been six collisions between aircraft on runways since 1990, leading to 63 deaths. The worst accident was at Los Angeles international airport in 1991 when a plane landed on a runway where another plane was already standing; 34 people died. .

There have also been several near collisions that have been avoided by pilot skill or luck.

In one incident two aircraft carrying 172 people came within less than 100ft of each other as they came in to land. Catastrophe was averted when the pilot of one of the planes, a Boeing 757 that had just landed, realized disaster was seconds away and managed to take off again out of the path of the oncoming Airbus A320.