The Runway Incursion Crisis, the FAA Runway Status Light Expansion, and the Briefing Every Crew Has to Do Before the Taxi Out

On February 4, 2023, a FedEx Boeing 767 on approach to runway 17 Left at Austin-Bergstrom International Airport came within approximately 170 feet laterally and 89 feet vertically of a Southwest Airlines Boeing 737 that had crossed the runway below it. The FedEx crew initiated a go-around when they spotted the Southwest aircraft. NTSB investigators found both clearances were technically valid - the failure was in controller coordination.

That near-catastrophe at one of the 30 busiest airports in the country is the anchor case driving the FAA’s current runway safety push, and it points directly to what every pilot - commercial or general aviation - should be doing before they ever call ground control.

How Serious Is the Runway Incursion Problem?

The FAA defines a runway incursion as any incorrect presence of an aircraft, vehicle, or person on a surface designated for landing or takeoff. Events are classified on a severity scale from Category D (no immediate safety effect) to Category A (collision narrowly avoided).

Total runway incursions have held between 1,000 and 1,200 events per year in recent years. The overwhelming majority are low-severity. But Category A and B events - those with real collision potential - have not been driven to zero. The cluster of high-profile near-misses in 2022 and 2023 pushed surface safety back to the top of the industry’s agenda.

What Happened at Austin-Bergstrom

The Austin-Bergstrom sequence unfolded because two controllers - the local controller owning the active runway and the ground controller who issued the crossing clearance - were not working from a complete shared picture of traffic. A crossing clearance went to the Southwest crew while the FedEx aircraft was already inside the final approach fix on short final. The Southwest crew had no way of knowing.

The NTSB determined the two aircraft came within approximately 170 feet laterally and 89 feet vertically at the closest point of approach. The FedEx crew saw the Southwest aircraft and acted. Nothing in the system stopped it from getting to that point.

The JFK Incident Two Weeks Earlier

Two weeks before Austin, an American Eagle Embraer 170 failed to hold short of runway 4 Left at John F. Kennedy International Airport. A Delta Air Lines Boeing 737 was already rolling on takeoff. The Delta crew rejected the takeoff at approximately 40 knots. The American Eagle aircraft stopped on the runway before the threshold. No one was hurt.

The NTSB opened a separate investigation. Two incidents. Two weeks apart. Two airports with full ground radar coverage and experienced controllers.

Both investigations identified the same underlying factors: communication gaps between controllers, absence of direct visual confirmation before runway crossings, and over-reliance on verbal clearances in high-tempo environments where coordination can lag behind traffic pace.

What the FAA Is Deploying: Runway Status Lights

The FAA’s primary technological response is the Runway Status Light (RWSL) program - in-pavement red lights embedded at runway entry points and along takeoff and landing zones. The defining feature is automation: RWSL activates independently of the controller. When an aircraft is on the runway or within a defined approach proximity, the entry point lights turn red automatically, without waiting for any human action.

As of mid-2025, RWSL is operational at 19 large hub airports, including Chicago O’Hare, Los Angeles International, Dallas-Fort Worth, and Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta - the airports where traffic volume and the consequences of error are both highest.

The Limits of the Technology

Nineteen airports is a small fraction of the total. There are over 500 federally certified towered airports in the United States. At Class C airports, regional hubs, and busy general aviation fields with towers, there are no in-pavement lights providing an independent safety layer.

The FAA also operates Airport Surface Detection Equipment (ASDE) at major facilities - ground radar that gives controllers a scope view of taxiway and runway traffic. But ASDE is a controller tool. It does not prevent an aircraft from entering a runway without a clearance.

Both the FAA and NTSB have stated this plainly: technology alone is not the answer. The behavioral layer is what catches the events that technology never sees coming.

The Briefing That Reduces Your Risk

Every airport with a documented runway incursion history carries that history on the airport diagram. The FAA marks these locations as hot spots - numbered circles on the airport diagram and in the Chart Supplement that flag specific areas with a history of confusion, missed hold-short lines, or geometry that consistently creates problems for pilots.

The preflight briefing practice is this:

1. Before calling ground control, open the airport diagram.
2. Locate all marked hot spots.
3. Identify every taxiway crossing of an active runway between your position and the departure runway.
4. Say them out loud.
5. Confirm what the hold-short markings and lights look like at each crossing point.

The drill takes 90 seconds to two minutes for a complex airport. Its purpose is to load the airport’s geometry into working memory before radio workload begins - so that when a clearance sounds slightly off, or ground routes you across an active without specifying what to do at an intersection, you catch it before you cross.

Why General Aviation Pilots Face Elevated Risk

General aviation pilots are involved in runway incursion events at a higher rate than commercial data alone suggests. A major contributing factor is unfamiliarity with complex airport geometry at airports the pilot has not visited before. A student on a cross-country stop at a Class C airport, given a taxi clearance involving three turns and two runway crossings, with arriving traffic on short final overhead, is managing real-time workload with no preparation for the terrain - if they have not briefed the diagram first.

The NTSB has recommended that formal flight training incorporate airport surface operations briefing as a demonstrated preflight skill on the practical test - not a note in a ground school manual, but a checkride item. That recommendation is under consideration for incorporation into the Airman Certification Standards. It has not been adopted yet.

If you are a certificated pilot who skips the airport diagram at a familiar airport, the NTSB data is unambiguous: familiarity is not protection. Category B events happen to experienced crews at airports they know.

FAA Issues Updated Guidance on Hybrid-Electric Aircraft Certification

The FAA released updated guidance on the type certification pathway for hybrid-electric aircraft operating under Part 23 and Part 25 standards. The agency clarified that new propulsion architectures combining electric motors with turbogenerators or battery packs will be evaluated under existing airworthiness standards, with supplemental criteria for novel failure modes.

The FAA was direct on one point: special condition waivers for battery thermal events will not be routinely granted. Manufacturers projecting certification timelines based on expedited pathways should be revising those timelines. The bar is not being lowered because the technology is new.

Aviation Weather Center Extends GTG Turbulence Forecasting

The National Weather Service updated the Aviation Weather Center’s Graphical Turbulence Guidance (GTG) product to provide more granular forecasts for clear air turbulence at flight levels below 18,000 feet - the altitude band where a significant portion of cross-country general aviation operates, particularly in mountainous terrain.

Pilots flying regularly in the Rocky Mountain corridor or through the Appalachians should check the updated GTG product at aviationweather.gov. The resolution improvements for low-level mountain wave turbulence forecasting are meaningful, and the product is free.

AOPA Air Safety Institute Adds 27 New Case Studies

The Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association (AOPA) published its annual update to the Air Safety Institute accident case study library, adding 27 new case studies covering accidents from the previous calendar year. New additions include:

• Two loss-of-control accidents on the base-to-final turn
• Three cases of VFR pilots who encountered instrument meteorological conditions
• A detailed fuel exhaustion accident in which the selector was in the correct position feeding from a tank the pilot incorrectly believed was full

That final case is worth studying. The aircraft had fuel. The pilot had fuel. What unfolded was a series of individually defensible decisions that compounded into an unmanageable outcome - which is almost always how these accidents develop.

AOPA Air Safety Institute resources are free at aopa.org.

Key Takeaways

• The February 4, 2023 Austin-Bergstrom near-miss - FedEx 767 and Southwest 737 within 170 feet laterally and 89 feet vertically - is the anchor case driving current FAA runway safety reform.
• The FAA’s Runway Status Light (RWSL) program is operational at 19 large hub airports as of mid-2025, but covers a fraction of the 500+ towered airports nationwide.
• Hot spots on the airport diagram mark locations with documented incursion history - brief them before every ground call, every time.
• The NTSB has recommended adding the airport surface briefing to the Airman Certification Standards as a checkride skill; the change has not yet been adopted.
• The GTG turbulence product now provides improved resolution below 18,000 feet, with more accurate mountain wave forecasting for general aviation cross-country routes.