Several high-profile incidents involving runway incursions at U.S. airports in the first half of this year have prompted the Department of Transportation's Inspector General (IG) to launch an audit to evaluate the FAA’s incursion prevention and mitigation efforts.
Since January 2023, there have been a series of incidents where aircraft have come “dangerously close to each other on runways, including at John F. Kennedy International Airport, Austin-Bergstrom International Airport, and Boston Logan International Airport,” said the IG. The FAA has classified these incursions as serious category A and B events.
In response, the FAA has taken a number of actions intended to prevent and mitigate incursions, such as forming a safety review team focusing on runway safety efforts; holding a runway safety summit with aviation industry stakeholders; re-examining data for similar serious incursions to identify trends; and awarding more than $100 million in grants to 12 airports to reduce incursions.
The IG audit will assess the effectiveness of those responses, as well as the FAA’s other processes for analyzing data, identifying risks associated with incursions, and continuing efforts for preventing and mitigating incursions.