In her opening address to the FAA International Runway Safety Summit in Washington, US National Transportation Safety Board Chairman Deborah Hersman criticized FAA for failing to act on runway safety recommendations made by the NTSB. Among other questions she asked, “How do safety improvements end up taking 10 years to deliver?…Every day they are delayed could be the day” an accident occurs.
The FAA International Runway Safety Summit is being held at the Omni Shoreham Hotel in Washington, DC. Co-sponsored by the American Association of Airport Executives (AAAE) and The MITRE Corporation, will continue on until December 3rd.
Ongoing discussions, analyses, and reviews of critical issues such as human factors, airport geometry, technology today and tomorrow, the cockpit, ATC procedures, and SMS systems are the expected topics.
Special keynote talks by U.S. Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood (invited), FAA Administrator J. Randolph Babbitt, and FAA Air Traffic Organization Chief Operating Officer Hank Krakowski will emphasize the importance placed on runway safety in the United States and its aviation partners worldwide. Wednesday’s luncheon presentation will feature Captain Robert Bragg, the sole surviving flight crew member of the Pan Am Tenerife crash.
