CLAYTON COUNTY, Ga. — The Federal Aviation Administration announced they’d be auditing the country’s 45 busiest airports after a rash of near collisions, and some actual collisions, at airports in the United States sparked concern.
The collisions, known as runway incursions, that have prompted federal review are in response to several incidents, including at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport.
The federal agency said it will work to identify “potential gaps in procedures, equipment, and processes” and will make recommendations to improve safety at the nation’s airports.
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The audit by the FAA follows a recent incident at Hartsfield-Jackson where two Delta jets collided in September.
Channel 2 Action News reported previously that that particular runway incursion led to the tail of one jet being knocked off by the wing of another while on the runway, according to a National Transportation Safety Board report.
NTSB’s report said the crew on the larger plane, which knocked the tail off of a smaller jet, was focused on an error message from their control system when the collision happened. Thankfully no one was hurt, but some passengers told Channel 2′s Tom Regan that the experience was “terrifying.”
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The FAA said overall, runway incursions across the country are significantly down.
“The audit is expected to be finished sometime in early 2025. The audit will include a risk profile for each airport, along with identifying potential gaps in procedures, equipment, and processes, and recommendations to improve safety,” the agency said.
That means the safety factors and potential improvement spots for Hartsfield-Jackson won’t be available to the public for several months.
However, based on FAA data for travel, Hartsfield-Jackson remains the busiest airport in the United States.
For the purposes of the runway incursion audit, the most recent FAA data for incursions at the Atlanta airport from 2023 said there were 14 incursions in that fiscal year, while there was a total of 362 nationally.
The airport with the most incursions in the most recent data was Chicago Midway International Airport, according to the FAA, which had 30 incursions in fiscal year 2023.
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