SEATTLE - How does Sea-Tac Airport stack up in terms of runway safety?
Based on the overall number of incursion incidents as measured by the FAA, Sea-Tac is in about the middle of the pack of the 20 busiest U.S. airports.
In the scope of the USA Today investigation that included data from late 2001 into the fall of 2014, none of those incidents was classified in the two most severe categories of incursions, A and B, where planes missed by mere feet, or where there was a major risk of a collision. Though there was a class A incursion involving two MD-80s in January of 2001.
In the scope of the investigation, Sea-Tac has seen 72 incidents involving U.S. commercial airlines, in the class C and D categories that typically show a plane in the wrong place, but that a collision was easily avoided. The last one involving an investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board occurred in 2008, when a Boeing 737 missed stop signals and warnings, and rolled onto the runway as an Airbus was taking off overhead. But the planes were so far apart, the NTSB says neither crew noticed.
Before and after that incident, Sea-Tac and the FAA have installed several high tech radar systems and even simple light up stop bars and more reflective ground markings to avoid collisions.
