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Runway Collision Risk High, Investigator Says

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The Tampa Tribune

Published: September 26, 2008

WASHINGTON - The rate of close calls on airport runways is up over last year and the risk of a collision is high, a government investigator said Thursday.

Gerald Dillingham, the Government Accountability Office's top expert on aviation safety, told a House panel that even though the Federal Aviation Administration "has given a higher priority to runway safety," there were 24 of the most serious kinds of runway incursions - defined as an event in which any aircraft, vehicle or person intrudes in space reserved for takeoff or landing - in fiscal 2008.

That's the same number of serious runway incursions as last year. But since air traffic operations have declined this year, the rate of serious incidents - measured by number of incidents per 1 million takeoffs and landings - increased 5 percent in the first three quarters of fiscal 2008, Dillingham told an aviation subcommittee of the House transportation committee.

The Associated Press

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