Runway Excursions A runway excursion occurs when an aircraft that is taking off or landing runs off the side of the runway or runs off the departure end of the runway. These accidents are commonly referred to as veer-offs and overruns, respectively. In 2009, the Flight Safety Foundation (FSF) published a study, Reducing the Risks of Runway Excursions. The study examined 417 runway excursions that occurred worldwide from 1995 to 2008. This study sample included air carrier passenger, cargo, and business jet operations. Over this period 34 of these runway excursion accidents resulted in 712 fatalities. The FSF report offers several strategies for preventing runway excursions that address flight operations, airport operators, air traffic management, regulatory agencies, and aircraft manufacturers. For the purpose of this report, two of the strategies from the FSF study that are directed at airport operators have been selected for discussion. The first strategy is to: Ensure that runways are constructed and maintained to ICAO specifications, so that effective friction levels and drainage are achieved (e.g., runway grooving, porous friction overlay.) In the United States, the importance of improving pavement drainage to reduce hydroplaning was recognized in the 1970’s. The Policies section (49 USC 47101) of the law establishing the Airport Improvement Program, which provides grants for development to airport operators, recognizes the importance of this treatment when it states: (f)Maximum Use of Safety Facilities.— This subchapter should be carried out consistently with a comprehensive airspace system plan, giving highest priority to commercial service airports, to maximize the use of safety facilities, including installing, operating, and maintaining, to the extent possible with available money and considering other safety needs— (1)… (2)grooving or friction treatment of each primary and secondary runway…With this policy in place, virtually every runway used by air carriers operating under 14 CFR Part 121 was either grooved or had some other surface treatment to improve drainage by the mid-1980s. The other strategy dovetails nicely with a major initiative that the FAA already had underway since the late 1990s. That strategy is to:
