The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has announced new guidelines for airport diagram symbology and verbiage to minimize the risk of collisions and incursions at airport 'hot spots.' We take a closer look at what this all means below.
Tackling runway confusion events
Airport runways are a complex ecosystem requiring careful coordination between pilots, air traffic control and other airport operatives. Despite the best efforts of all parties, misjudgment and miscommunication can still occur, particularly around airport 'hot spots' where there is a heightened risk of collision or runway incursion.
The FAA is standardizing hot spot symbology and verbiage to tackle dangerous runway confusion events. Currently, no standard symbol is used to designate hot spots at an airport. Instead, airport diagrams use a variety of squares, rectangles, circles, ovals, and ellipses, adding to the risk of runway confusion.
There will now be two standardized symbols to designate hot spots - a circle or ellipse for ground movement hot spots and a cylinder for wrong surface hot spots. Airport diagrams will begin implementing the new standardized symbology on May 19th, 2022.
The FAA said,
"Under the new system, all hot spots related to complex or confusing taxiways, taxiway intersections, or taxiway/runway intersections, will be designated with circles and ellipses. Areas that present significant potential for wrong surface events will be designated by cylinders."
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What are 'hot spots'?
The FAA defines hot spots as "a location on an airport movement area with a history or potential risk of collision or runway incursion, and where heightened attention by pilots and drivers is necessary."
Ground movement hot spots include hold short line infractions, approach hold issues, complex taxiway configurations, movement-non movement boundary area issues, tower line of sight problems, marking and signage issues.
Wrong surface hot spots are areas where an aircraft has taken off, landed, or attempted to land/take off on the wrong surface. According to the FAA, 83% of wrong surface events occur with general aviation pilots.
In an October 2020 meeting, the FAA said,
"After numerous wrong surface events with some being potentially catastrophic, this is one of the FAA’s Top 5 Safety Issues."
Important safety changes
The FAA has noted the significant safety risk of runway confusion events. Runway confusion includes landing or taking off from the wrong runway or entering a runway/taxiway without authorization.
There are all kinds of safety risks due to runway confusion, including mid-air or ground collisions and taking off or landing at shorter-than-required runways. This week, Simple Flying reported on a KLM aircraft in Kuwait that ended up stranded on a closed turnoff.
The agency has also introduced Arrival Alert Notices (AAN) at several airports with a history of misalignment. These notices, which will visually aid pilots at select airports, will apply to 11 airports around the United States.
What do you think of the FAA's steps to tackle hot spots? Do you have any personal stories involving airport hot spots to share? Let us know in the comments.