By James Pilcher
Enquirer staff writer

With four close calls during fiscal 2003, the number of "incursions" involving moving planes on the runways of the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport doubled compared to the year before, federal data released Tuesday shows.

And there have been five additional incidents since October 2003, including three this July alone.

Federal Aviation Administration and local airport officials say that, while no incursion is acceptable, they point out the rate of incursions compared with total operations is still relatively low. None of the incidents was "serious" under a national rating system, they added.

Local airport officials say a 4.8 percent growth in landings and takeoffs in the last two years boosted the number of incursions.

"This shows a trend in the wrong direction," said Dale Keith, the airport's director of operations. "It is definitely a concern, but we have had a lot of growth in our operations."

The local data was part of a report issued by the FAA, which showed serious incursions were down significantly nationwide and overall incursions down slightly compared with 2002. There were 324 incursions in fiscal year 2003, including 32 that were considered as being high risk for an accident. Of those, only two involved commercial jets the size of regional jets or bigger.

Incursions have caused seven accidents since 2000 that have led to four deaths; they led to 63 deaths nationally in the 1990s. One of the worst aviation disasters in history happened in 1977 on the Canary Islands when a KLM pilot started to take off without clearance in fog and crashed his plane into a Pan Am jumbo jet, killing 582.

FAA officials said that there was not a serious incursion involving two commercial jets between October and the end of July.

"These are very encouraging signs, and shows that the American runway is a very safe place to be," FAA administrator Marion Blakey said.

Locally, the issue was a major concern in 2000 when the airport had one of the highest rates in the nation.

The number dropped after a committee of airport officials, users and tower staff began meeting to tackle the issue. The rates continued down in the following two years, and the committee has not met since last year.

The 2003 incidents translated into a rate of 0.80 incursions per 100,000 operations.

In July, the airport handled 44,432 operations, or takeoffs and landings, up from 42,409 in July 2002.

(Controllers also handle runway crossings by ground equipment and airplanes being towed or taxied by mechanics).

Still, the rate in fiscal 2002 was 0.42 per 100,000 operations.

FAA spokeswoman Kathleen Bergen said the agency is still reviewing recent incidents, and does not have an overriding reason for the incursion increase.

But she said the agency and local airport officials are trying to reconvene the runway safety committee, and that the tower is staffing an extra traffic management position during peak traffic and inclement weather conditions "to reduce the workload."

According to FAA reports, two of the fiscal 2003 incidents were deemed "operational errors" because of the fault of air traffic controllers.

The other two were found to be the fault of the pilot.

Of the five incursions since then, preliminary reports show one was the fault of the pilot, one was the fault of a vehicle driver, and the others were because of controller error.

Randy Brindley, president of the local chapter of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association, said the union is contesting one of those reports, but that he is not concerned about what has happened over the last few years.

"What I am concerned about is what could happen in terms of a possible spike in incidents," Brindley said, referring to a documented possible shortfall of controllers due to potential retirements.

E-mail jpilcher@enquirer.com