(CNN) The Federal Aviation Administration told airlines in a rare industry-wide bulletin Wednesday to heighten vigilance at airports following a series of near-calls on or near runways.
The agency issued a “Call to Action on Aviation Safety,” urging airlines to “increase compliance with published processes and procedures.”
“Operators should evaluate the information gathered through their safety management processes, identify hazards, increase and improve safety communication with employees, and take remedial action,” the safety alert reads.
While flying remains an incredibly safe way to travel, the Bulletin recommends “focus areas” highlighted by recent events, including: using internal communication processes to “highlight existing issues”; reinforcing rules such as air traffic control checklists and instructions; Ensuring pilots and flight attendants understand what a “sterile flight deck” means, including the risks of external communications; and reviewing runway safety protocols.
Such comprehensive FAA bulletins are generally rare. This is only the second “operator safety alert” issued this year, and last year there were only three, each addressing specific airports or aircraft systems rather than a broad call to action.
The bulletin comes a week after an FAA emergency safety summit that brought together regulators and industry groups after at least six high-profile runway raids at major U.S. airports were reported since earlier this year.
Transport Secretary Pete Buttigieg, in his opening remarks, referred to a “surge” in aviation incidents and urged attendees to help identify the “root causes” of the problem.
“We’re particularly concerned because we’ve seen an uptick in serious close calls,” he said at the event in McLean, Virginia.
The FAA safety summit was the first of its kind since 2009 and ushered in a comprehensive safety review the agency is conducting in the wake of the runway raids.
“These recent incidents must serve as a wake-up call for each and every one of us before something more catastrophic happens, before lives are lost,” National Transportation Safety Board Chair Jennifer Homendy told government and industry officials who gathered .
Still, commercial plane crashes are very rare, with approximately 45,000 flights typically operating each day in the US, all with no fatalities. That’s a number that continues to rise after a slowdown in commercial flights at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Separately, a Senate committee vote to consider President Joe Biden’s nominee for leadership of the FAA has been postponed, although a vote was previously scheduled for Wednesday morning.
Phil Washington, whose nomination was first announced by Biden about eight months ago, has met continued opposition from Republican congressmen on a number of issues, including his scanty aviation-related credentials and potential legal entanglements.
January incident at BWI Airport
A report of a close collision with an airliner on a US runway has only recently come to light.
Earlier this year, an airliner and an emergency vehicle were less than a football field away from a collision on a Baltimore airport runway, according to an FAA report.
The National Transportation Safety Board told CNN that it is not investigating the incident.
The FAA determined that the emergency vehicle crossed a runway at Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport on Jan. 12 without permission from the air traffic controller.
An FAA incident report states that the vehicle’s driver read incorrect instructions to the controller, but the controller “did not recognize the incorrect read back”. The report categorizes the incident as Category B, which is considered less serious than Category A incidents.
“The aircraft took off before reaching the point the vehicle had traversed,” the FAA said in a statement. “The FAA estimates that the vehicle was approximately 170 feet past the runway when the flying aircraft passed through this intersection.”
The incident report states that the plane was 25 feet off the ground when it reached the intersection where the vehicle had been.
CNN’s Greg Wallace, Meagan Vazquez, and Julia Buckley contributed to this report.