Pearson tackles threat of runway collisions
Improved signage, lighting and new awareness campaign will lower risk, authority says
OTTAWA— The operator of Pearson International Airport says it’s taken steps to reduce the risk of runway collisions with improved signage and lighting to better guide pilots and will be mounting a fresh appeal to U.S. air carriers to be more vigilant when operating at Canada’s busiest airport.
A rash of runway incursions — when a vehicle or aircraft inadvertently enters a runway — has spurred the Transportation Safety Board of Canada to launch a special review of operations at Pearson.
Both the Greater Toronto Airports Authority and Nav Canada, the private agency responsible for providing air traffic control, say they are supporting the study.
Just this week, a controller — concerned that a U.S. jet wasn’t going to stop as instructed on a taxiway and instead cross a runway into the path of a departing jet — radioed orders to the crew to “stop, stop.”
That incident happened in the very location — the two parallel runways on the south side of Pearson — that is the focus of the safety board’s special review.
During busy periods, aircraft land on the outer runway and then taxi across the inner runway to reach the terminal buildings. But almost two dozen times in recent years, aircraft have failed to stop as instructed on a taxiway, infringing on the protected runway environment.
In the vast majority of incidents, the aircraft cross the “hold-short” line, which marks the protected runway environment, but stop soon after with little risk of colliding with another aircraft.
However, safety board officials are keen to reduce such incursions, which pose the risk of a catastrophic incident.
The safety board hopes to have its study done by the year’s end. But the airport authority said that the frequency of incidents prompted it to launch its own earlier review, which led to changes to reduce incursions.
Those included improved taxiway markings to better show the holding points and new signage, equipped with LED lighting, to alert pilots to hold short of the parallel runway.
As well, the authority has boosted the intensity of the stop bar lighting, located on taxiways to alert pilots to a runway ahead, so they can be better seen during day and night operations.
The airport authority also plans to mount a new awareness campaign among U.S. airlines, which appear responsible for the vast majority of incursions on the south parallel runways.
That follows an earlier campaign in 2013, when Howard Eng, the president and chief executive officer of the airport authority, wrote to the senior executives of several American air carriers to alert them to the worrisome trend.
At the time, he said American airlines — typically regional carriers — were involved in 20 of the 25 incursions. All the incidents were “re- markably similar” with the pilots acknowledging a controller’s instruction to hold short of the parallel runway but not always stopping, Eng said in one such letter addressed to the president of American Eagle Airlines in 2013.
“These incursions represent an important safety issue and ultimately it is the responsibility of the crew to abide by ATC direction,” Eng said.
In his letter, Eng said the design of the parallel runways at Pearson “presents some challenges.”
“The geometry and supporting infrastructure is not necessarily what regional crews flying . . . from U.S. airports are used to seeing,” Eng said.
He encouraged the airlines to incorporate Pearson operations into their pilot training and simulator work as well as pre-landing briefings, when airport “hot spots” — which have the potential for collisions — are reviewed.
“While these improvements have had a significant impact, incursions in this area continue and we’ll be looking to mount this campaign again for continued awareness,” Michael Belanger, director of aviation programs and compliance for the airport authority, said in a statement to the Star Friday.