In Sarasota, a controller accidentally cleared a Cessna propeller plane to enter the middle of a runway on which another Cessna was taking off, the board ruled. The pilots who entered the runway occupied by another plane also erred, the safety board said. NTSB member George Black said. Near-collisions on runways continue to occur regularly. Two years ago, the Federal Aviation Administration began a series of efforts to bring the problem under control.
Attempts range from pilot-training programs to a closer review of incidents.
A runway collision warning system for large airports is scheduled to begin at two sites this summer. The NTSB concluded that the Sarasota accident began with a series of relatively minor mistakes by two controllers that, under normal circumstances, would not have caused a problem. The mistakes led one controller to lose track of where planes were as they approached the runway. As a result, the controller sent one plane into the path of another, thinking it was headed instead for a safe spot on the runway. In other action, the NTSB released a safety study showing that the vast majority of aviation accident victims since 1983 had survived.