Flight Safety Foundation and Partners Target Runway Excursion Prevention

GAPPRE is a mouthful even as an acronym. But the Flight Safety Foundation and its partner groups are hoping the Global Action Plan for the Prevention of Runway Excursions will help create solutions to one of the most serious accident risks to both large and small aircraft, as well as their occupants. The International Air Transport Association reported that between 2005 and the first half of 2019, 23 percent (283) of accidents in the IATA’s global accident database involved a runway excursion. By definition, an excursion is any time the PIC loses control of an aircraft on the runway during takeoff or landing.

In a news release during the week of March 8, the foundation said GAPPRE is the foundation’s latest initiative related to approach and landing safety. It offers recommendations to individual segments of the industry based on years of research. Groupings include airport operators, air navigation service providers, aircraft operators, airframe manufacturers, national regulators, and ICAO. Some of those recommendations include for airport operators, ensuring when the runway is active, that runway centerline lighting is turned on whenever the edge lights are also in use. Aircraft manufacturers should consider making on-board, real-time stabilized approach monitoring systems that provide alerts when aircraft stray from stable approach criteria.

Additionally the foundation’s Approach and Landing Accident Reduction Toolkit—first issued in 1998 and updated in 2010—is one of the most widely circulated and utilized efforts in the foundation’s history. More recently, the recommendations contained in the Go-Around Decision-Making and Execution Project report have gained traction with several international operators.

Flight Safety Foundation’s president and CEO Dr. Hassan Shahidi said, “Reducing runway excursions and continuing to improve the overall safety of the approach and landing phases of flight continue to be a primary area of focus for the foundation. We are gratified by the efforts of the many safety professional who gave of their time and expertise to make the GAPPRE a reality. I want to thank our partners at EUROCONTROL, ACI, CANSO, EASA and IATA for their continuing commitment to safety collaboration.”