A Multi-national Causal Analysis of Airport Surface Safety Occurrences

Runway and taxiway safety, i.e. airport surface safety is acknowledged as one of aviation’s greatest challenges worldwide. To improve this key area of aviation safety, the causal and contributing factors, i.e. critical factors must be identified and their impacts understood. This paper analyzes a multi-national data set (North America, Europe, Oceania) with a total of 3,814 accidents and incidents for their underlying critical factors. The collected data set captures all airport surface safety occurrence types (excursions, collisions/incursions, Foreign Object Damage, wildlife strikes) and represents the viewpoints of all relevant aviation stakeholders (regulators, Air Navigation Service Providers, airport authorities, airlines). Through unique features the five chosen countries allow supplementary for comparison of diverse air traffic movement characteristics and airport infrastructures. A new taxonomy of critical factors underlying airport surface safety occurrences is applied to the safety data. Statistical analysis complements the understanding of certain fuzzy areas. The analysis highlights that differences in occurrence types and underlying critical factors are a function of the national air traffic system and airport infrastructure, the underlying regulations, the operational mode, the reporting system and safety culture, and the viewpoint and interest of the stakeholder that is represented. The analysis further verifies that the databases complement each other and that a holistic picture can only be achieved through their combined usage.