Vanquishing the V/PD

3rd Quarter 2018 

A quarterly publication from the

Safety Section

Federal Aviation Administration Airports Division

Western-Pacific Region

This publication is directed primarily towards airport management to be disseminated to 

all levels of personnel working at your airfield. Vanquishing the Vehicle/Pedestrian 

Deviation (V/PD) can be accomplished through a solid partnership between the FAA and 

airport management. The responsibility of making sure that the proper safeguards are in 

place, however, lies squarely on the shoulders of airport management. Please use this 

information and all that follows as a guide by which to provide a safer environment at 

your airfield.

In the aviation community, Airfield Operations employees are considered professionals 

when it comes to the execution of their duties. This consideration applies especially to the 

manner in which they drive the movement areas at their airports. Since January 1, 2017, 

there have been seven V/PDs in the Western-Pacific Region involving Airfield 

Operations. All of them were runway incursions. With the exception of one incident, all 

occurred at large airports certificated under 14 CFR Part 139. This is an alarming trend 

we want to see reversed. 

As you perform your airfield operational duties, keep in mind that you are professionals. 

Airfield Operations personnel work closely with the best air traffic controllers and the 

best pilots in the aviation industry. This is a very serious working environment and 

executing your assigned duties with a safe and professional attitude is paramount. How 

can you strive to accomplish this? We can begin by following a few, basic tenets: 

• Report for work physically and mentally fit. It is your professional 

responsibility to govern your physical and mental condition. Working back-toback shifts or reporting to work when you are ill does not promote mental acuity 

or safety. I have known airfield operations personnel who have fallen asleep while 

driving their vehicles and collided with other vehicles on the airfield. 
• Complacency kills. We all understand that complacency leads to inattention and 

inattention leads to disaster. I have always found that the best remedy for a selfcongratulatory or self-satisfied attitude is a simple walk through the terminal. The 

human connection of looking at the faces of the passengers and realizing that each 

one of them have families, friends and loved ones is enough to dispel 

complacency and garner attention to the task-at-hand. 

• Trust but verify. Assuming that a given situation on the airfield is always correct 

is unwise. You can be satisfied that (usually) when Air Traffic Control (ATC) 

issues you a clearance, it will be safe to proceed; however, it is a good practice to 

verify your assumption by looking for traffic and comparing your situational 

awareness with ATCs. Do not trust that pilots or ATC never make mistakes. 

Pilots and ATC are humans and, as humans, make mistakes. This is why pilots, 

ATC and Airfield Operations should all back each other up by exercising 

situational awareness. The concept of trust but verify applies to every operational 

responsibility assigned to Airfield Operations personnel including self-inspection 

duties, escorting, overseeing construction activities, entering the runway 

environment or responding to an accident or incident.

• The runway is sacred territory. The runway environment must be treated in an 

inviolate manner. The boundary of this sacred territory begins at the runway 

holding position marking and ends where you exit the runway. When ATC clears 

you onto the runway, you have a clearance to occupy that space, much the same 

as an aircraft is granted sole occupation of airspace while flying IFR. We have 

recently had incidents in the Western-Pacific Region where airfield operations 

personnel have entered active runways, completely unaware that they were doing 

so. In some cases, inclement weather or disorientation contributed to the 

incursions. Nevertheless, in the most egregious cases, one or more of the 

preceding tenets were not followed. These incursions led to revocation of airfield 

driving privileges or outright dismissal of the employee. 

Airport Operations employees are entrusted with the responsibility of executing their 

duties safely and professionally. They are considered dedicated professionals who keep 

the airport running safely and efficiently. Following the four tenets of professionalism 

will keep you out of trouble and keep you in the highest esteem of the flying public. 

Column written by: 

Steven Oetzell

Lead Airport Certification Safety Inspector, AWP-620.6 

Reproductions of this, past and subsequent issues of Vanquishing the VPD are available 

on FAAWebsite: 

http://www.faa.gov/airports/western_pacific/airports_news_events/vanquishing_vpd_new

sletters/