Visual aids to prevent runway incursion

Runway incursions are a major risk on aerodromes. Visual aids may be globally assessed as a simple means to prevent runway incursion: a marking or a lighting unit warns the pilot he is approaching the runway area.

However visual aids efficiency may be reduced by bad meteorological conditions as poor visibility or runway and taxiway contamination. Moreover, runway incursions records lead to establish that means provided on airports are not sufficient even under good meteorological conditions.

The objective of this document is to present the state of the art of visual aids to prevent runway incursions and projects and experiments related to that topic. The relevance of means is analysed in accordance with the various operational contexts through an advantage/disadvantage comparaison.