Year after year, it’s the same refrain: Runway incursions and ground collisions are among the most critical safety concerns in commercial aviation. Consider: The Federal Aviation Administration says during fiscal year 2004 there were 326 incursions. A year later, the potentially deadly figure had decreased only slightly, to 324. That’s why the problem perennially tops the National Transportation Safety Board’s list of “Most Wanted” safety improvements.

Someday, somewhere aviation safety experts agree, we run the real risk of another Tenerife, the site of the most horrendous accident in aviation history, where two 747s collided on a foggy runway. 583 died when a KLM seven-four, piloted by the airline’s most experienced pilot, plowed into the Pan Am plane.

Since then, domestically, FAA has installed high-tech preventative gear at some 34 airports. It’s called AMASS—Airport Movement Area Safety System. Supplementing AMASS at 25 medium-sized airports is ASDE-X—Airport Surface Detection Equipment, Model X. Radar detects potential ground collisions, and alerts controllers.

Both systems are real improvements over the runway position report, see-and-be-seen approach that once prevailed. But the NTSB is still concerned that these systems essentially rely on the controller’s timely ability to communicate with flight crews. NTSB wants a setup, much like the airborne controller-independent TCAS (Traffic Alert/Collision Avoidance System), which gives pilots direct warnings of an impending collision. 

That hasn’t happened yet. It’s why news out of Dallas/Fort Worth International is so significant. The planet’s third-busiest aerodrome is breaking ground on a perimeter taxiway system that promises to dramatically reduce the potential for runway incursions and collisions. It’s massive, and it’s pricey. But by segregating traffic, by radically reducing the number of times taxiing aircraft have to cross active runways (DFW has seven of them), this extra concrete promises unparalleled safety for so large an airport.

The concept is low-tech, and supremely simple: Build perimeter taxiways around DFW, enabling aircraft to taxi around the runway complex instead of having to cross it. Not only should the layout improve safety, but get you to your gate faster too. You won’t have to wait (sometimes seemingly forever) to cross, while another airplane takes off or lands.

FAA Administrator Marion Blakey echoes Crite’s assessment: “The new perimeter taxiway will help reduce the risk of incursions, and improve airfield capacity and efficiency at the same time.”

What gives officials confidence this will work? DFW, FAA and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration ran virtual simulations of the setup at NASA’s Ames FutureFlight Central in California back in 2003. “When we tested the system,” Crites says, “we were able to eliminate a significant number of runway crossings every hour.” He says communications between controllers and pilots also improved. That’s critical.

DFW isn’t implementing the system all at one time. That makes sense. The airport is about the size of Manhattan. It takes in 18,0000 acres. So, construction will be accomplished by quadrants. The first fourth of the perimeter taxiway system will cost an estimated $66.7 million, with about 75 percent of the money coming from the FAA. The southeast section of the setup should be completed by the fall of 2008.

Construction of the entire system can’t come fast enough. Let’s hope other airports see it as a low-tech, straightforward template to cut incursions.

The clock is ticking on another Tenerife.