Building a Safety Community at DCA

The FAA aims to reduce runway incursions at towered airports through annual meetings that bring local aviation communities together.

The FAA’s Bridget Singratanakul and Scott Proudfoot address meeting participants. (FAA)

By Jim Tise, FAA

The FAA recently mobilized at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport (DCA) to address the increasing number of runway incursions in the last several years. This runway safety action team (RSAT) meeting is critically important but not unique; the FAA holds them annually at all 525 US airports that have control towers.

“Through the RSAT process, local safety issues can be addressed,” said Scott Proudfoot, the FAA Runway Safety Team manager. “Some of these issues may be unknown until they are discussed in that meeting.

General aviation aircraft account for about 80 percent of runway incursions throughout the National Airspace System. A runway incursion happens when an aircraft, vehicle or person gets onto or too close to a runway without authorization. Of primary concern are “hold short” incidents, in which aircraft on taxiways fail to stop completely behind a runway hold line.

More than 60 participants from various organizations — including the FAA, Washington area airports authority, major airlines, the USDA, and other aviation stakeholders — met at DCA to discuss a wide-ranging number of surface-related issues, including wrong-surface operations, wildlife hazard mitigation, and controller/pilot communication.

Left: Ryan Stewart with the USDA discusses wildlife mitigation efforts. (FAA) Right: Perry Benshoof gives participants insight into the FAASTeam’s safety efforts. (FAA)

“Safety involves all of us,” Proudfoot said at the opening of the meeting. “Doing your job is not enough. You have to go above and beyond.”

As the result of a previous RSAT recommendation, the FAA stood up a collaborative work group in 2022 to determine what, if any, airfield improvements were needed in one particular location where a number of incursions had occurred. After collaborating with airlines, the airport installed new pavement markings and signs to improve pilot situational awareness in the area. Since this past July, no runway incursions have occurred at DCA.

At this year’s meeting, everyone agreed to take further steps to prevent incursions.

• The FAA is working to include an arrival alert notice at DCA to warn pilots of wrong surface risk at the airport between Runways 19 and 15.
• An annual pilot/controller forum meeting will be established, featuring controllers working at the DCA Tower and the Potomac Terminal Radar Approach Control facility. The outreach effort is aimed at keeping pilots informed about regional safety operational improvements.
• The airport plans to install solar elevated guard lights on runways to better guide pilots during nighttime operations, when situational awareness is at a premium.

Ryan Stewart from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) shared his expertise on wildlife hazard mitigation, primarily bird strikes. There have been 50 bird strikes at DCA this year, two resulting in significant damage. One of the main problems is people feeding birds at Gravelly Point, a park just north of DCA at which residents come to watch aircraft take off and land. Food trucks often park at the location to serve the residents, adding to trash that attract birds.

From Left: Shannetta Griffin, FAA’s associate administrator for airports, FAA Deputy Administrator Katie Thomson, and Jennifer Homendy, chair of the National Transportation Safety Board.

The USDA and FAA publish leaflets to remind people not to feed the birds. The airport authority is working with other local parties to install large signs in Gravelly Point Park to deter the illegal feeding of birds that increases risk of bird strikes to aircraft on approach or departing DCA.

“The purpose is to have an open forum,” said Proudfoot. “We want a discussion where people are comfortable in bringing these issues to light and possibly mitigating them by coming up with action items.”