Adrian is Auckland bureau chief for Aviation Week, based in New Zealand. He covers commercial aviation in the Asia-Pacific region.
Adrian was previously based in Aviation Week’s Washington office for nine years, writing for a range of the group’s publications and covering many aspects of the commercial aviation industry. He has won Australasian and international awards for his aviation writing.
Prior to joining Aviation Week in 2002, Adrian covered aviation industry and policy issues for two other publishing companies in Washington. He has also worked for newspapers in Texas and New Zealand, covering a wide range of topics. Adrian graduated from Auckland University with a degree in history and English in 1992.
– FAA is preparing to select companies to provide low-cost runway surveillance systems for an extensive test program that could lead to a nationwide deployment. The agency will soon select one or more systems to evaluate at six airport for a trial that will last anywhere from “several months to a year,” an FAA spokesman said. The agency wants to determine which system will satisfy minimum operational and safety requirements, and whether it will be feasible to continue with a procurement.
Despite decades of work on the problem, runway incursions remain one of the biggest safety vulnerabilities in the U.S. aviation system. The FAA is introducing new technology with the potential to dramatically reduce the incursion risk, and aviation stakeholders agree it must be deployed as quickly as possible at major airports.
Everybody agrees runway incursions remain a major problem at U.S. airports, but whether it is getting worse remains open to debate. For example, the FAA argues that the total is going down, while the Government Accountability Office says the rate per operation has increased.
