The pilots’ union is urging them to increase vigilance in order to prevent close calls

The FAA Safety Alert: A wake-up call to the real problem before it becomes too big to be too big: a response to the Covid-19 pandemic

This alert has been sent just two days after the Federal Aviation Administration told airlines in an industrywide bulletin to step up vigilance at airports because of the close calls on or near runways.

Generally, sweeping FAA bulletins are rare. There were only three safety alert last year, each of which dealt with specific airports or plane systems, compared to the two this year.

While flying remains an incredibly safe way to travel, the bulletin suggests the following: using internal communication processes to highlight issues; reinforcing rules, such as checklists and Air Traffic Control instructions; and Ensuring pilots and flight attendants understand what a ” “

The bulletin follows by a week an emergency FAA safety summit that brought together regulators and industry groups after at least six high-profile runway incursions were reported at large US airports since the start of this year.

In its opening remarks, Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg cited an “uptick” in aviation incidents and called on participants to help find the “root causes” of the problem.

“These recent incidents must serve as a wake-up call for every single one of us, before something more catastrophic occurs, before lives are lost,” National Transportation Safety Board Chair Jennifer Homendy told government and industry leaders gathered for it.

Still, commercial plane crashes are very rare, with approximately 45,000 flights typically completed each day in the US, all without fatality. That’s a number that continues to rise following a slowdown of commercial flights at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic.

FAA Investigation of an Airborne Emergency Vehicle Near Colliding with a Football Field-Like Plane at the Baltimore International Thurgood Marshall Airport

Separately, a Senate committee vote to consider President Joe Biden’s nominee to lead the FAA has been delayed, despite a vote being previously scheduled for Wednesday morning.

Republican members of Congress have been resistant to the nomination of Phil Washington over a number of issues, including his slim aviation-related credentials and his potential legal entanglements.

An airliner and emergency vehicle came less than a football field’s length away from colliding on a runway at the Baltimore airport earlier this year, according to an FAA report.

The FAA determined the emergency vehicle crossed a runway at the Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport on January 12 without air traffic controller permission.

The driver of the vehicle read back incorrect instructions to the controller, but the controller didn’t catch them. The incident is categorized as category B, which is less severe than category A incidents.

“The plane took off before it reached the point where the vehicle had crossed,” the FAA said in a statement. “The FAA estimates the vehicle was approximately 170 feet past the runway when the airborne plane flew over that intersection.”

“Even though we all know that multiple levels of safety are built into our system, there is no question that we are seeing too many close calls,” said Tim Arel, chief operating officer of the Federal Aviation Administration’s Air Traffic Organization.

The rapid hiring of aviation positions meant there were many new roles to fill and that many people are performing new roles.

“Reducing distractions where possible, disciplined procedures and communications, and effective crew resource management help manage strains on the system,” the alert said.

The bulletin encouraged pilots to submit voluntary safety reports and to always pay attention to their fellow pilots’ situational awareness.

On Thursday, the head of the nation’s air traffic controllers said there have been too many near collisions at airports and laid out steps to avoid more, including more supervisor oversight in control towers and extra controller training for “unusual circumstances.”

The five steps laid out by Arel in an agencywide memo follow last week’s FAA safety summit focusing on the recent series of near-collisions. Six incidents have been investigated by the National Transport Safety Board.

Arel said they had to dig deep to identify the underlying factors and address them. “With the summer travel season just around the corner, airlines and the traveling public have high expectations.”

The Rate of Disruption on US Airways is Double What It Was in the Past Two Years, and why it is Happening Now

The secretary of transportation said on Thursday that the rate of serious incidents on US runways is double what it was in the past.

“In past years, they’ve occurred at roughly a rate of once per month,” he told a Senate panel. This year they are occurring at twice that rate.