At a recent safety seminar at Daniel Webster University, at one of the meetings we were informed that the FAA has adopted the ICAO Runway Incursion Definition. (The FAA, AOPA, etc, have been instrumental in creating the definition.) The net result is that more activities will likely be called incursions. Here is a quote from the most recent Runway Safety report where the definition is provided:
ICAO Runway Incursion Definition and Severity Classification
As part of the its Flight Plan goal for International Leadership, the FAA supported the efforts of ICAO to establish standard definitions for runway incursion and runway incursion severity.
This will eventually allow the collection of comparable data and enable the building of a comprehensive database of global information that may be used to enhance runway safety management.
Comparison between FAA and ICAO Runway Incursion Severity Definitions
FAA Runway Incursion DefinitionAny occurrence in the airport runway environment involving an aircraft, vehicle, person, or object on the ground that creates a collision hazard or results in a loss of required separation with an aircraft taking off, intending to take off, landing, or intending to land.ICAO Runway Incursion DefinitionAny occurrence at an aerodrome involving the incorrect presence of an aircraft, vehicle or person on the protected area of a surface designated for the landing and take-off of aircraft.Currently, the FAA reviews all surface incidents (SIs), identifies a subset as runway incursions, and assigns a severity. Effective October 1, 2007, the FAA will categorize runway incursions using the ICAO definition of incursions and the ICAO severity categories.
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The FAA’s expansion of the definition of a runway incursion to harmonize with the ICAO definition will lead to an increase in the total number of runway incursions and a change in the United States runway incursion severity distribution.
I encourage you to read the report. This information begins on page 43. http://www.faa.gov/runwaysafety/pdf/rireport06.pdf
Notice that the FAA definition requires that an incursion result in loss of separation with a landing or departing aircraft and in the ICAO definition, no loss of separation is required. Grandma taking a morning constitutional alongside the runway will be an incursion even if there is no safety consequence.
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