Critical factors underlying airport surface accidents and incidents: A holistic taxonomy

The steady growth in air traffic has been one of the major features in transport over the last 50 years and forecasts indicate a further growth for at least the next 20 years. In addition to problems associated with congestion and delays, this growth has considerable safety impacts. One major area highlighted by a number of aviation authorities is that of airport surface safety, in particular runway and taxiway safety. Although previous and current initiatives increasingly emphasise the topic, surface safety is rarely considered in an integrated manner and is characterised by the split in attention to various aspects of surface safety of the different aviation stakeholders. In particular, a holistic taxonomy for the critical factors underlying airport surface accidents and incidents is missing. This paper introduces a new methodology for the development of a holistic taxonomy. A global perspective, in terms of organisations, is taken. The methodology incorporates the findings from the subject matter literature with an analysis of safety data, an airports survey, and interviews with subject matter experts (SMEs). The viewpoints of all aviation stakeholders involved in airport surface safety occurrences are considered. Through the combination of the different research methods, the taxonomy appears to be more robust than existing approaches.