Skip to main content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Audit Reports

Date

Progress Has Been Made in Reducing Runway Incursions, but Recent Incidents Underscore the Need for Further Proactive Efforts

Project ID
AV2007050
File Attachment

On May 24, 2007, we issued our final report on the Federal Aviation Administration's (FAA) actions to address runway incursions at Boston Logan, Chicago O'Hare, Philadelphia, and Los Angeles International Airports. Overall, we found that FAA, airlines, and airport operators had taken actions to address runway incursions. However, those actions were taken only after an increase in the number and severity of incidents that occurred at those airports. Preventing runway incursions throughout the National Airspace System requires continuous vigilance on the part of FAA and users. Compared to 5 years ago, FAA has made significant progress in reducing those incidents. However, the serious risks associated with runway incursions underscore the need for maintaining a proactive approach for preventing serious incidents. We made six recommendations focusing on programmatic actions that could help FAA to reduce runway incursions system-wide. FAA senior officials verbally agreed with our recommendations; however, FAA's formal response did not explicitly state whether the Agency concurred or non-concurred. Further, the actions proposed by FAA were unspecific as to how or when the Agency would address the intent of our recommendations. We requested that FAA provide us with additional information regarding the specific actions that it plans to take to implement each of our recommendations along with timeframes for completion.