T+L's Most Dangerous U.S. Airports

From Travel & Leisure Magazine October, 2011

We looked at the 35 busiest airports in America over the last five years (2006–2010) and used information from the FAA’s Runway Safety Report and individual runway safety data supplied by the FAA. We averaged the Runway Incident Rate-the total number of runway incidents divided by the total number of runway operations (takeoffs and landings)-over the five years covered in our survey period. We then looked at serious (Category “A” and “B”*) runway incidents in which there was a strong or good possibility of a crash or human casualties. We assigned values to these incidents: 1 for “A” and 0.5 for “B.” We added these Category A/B incident scores to the incident rate per year to achieve an overall score and ranking. We’ve listed the 20 airports with the highest scores.

* Category “A” is a serious incident in which a collision was narrowly avoided. Category “B” is an incident in which separation decreases and there is a significant potential for collision, which may result in a time-critical corrective/evasive response to avoid a collision.

No. 5: Honolulu International

Score: 3.62

Runway Incidents: 30

Close Calls: In May 2007, a military cargo plane taxiing after landing nearly strayed into the path of a departing commuter passenger jet.

The Fix: As part of a $2.3 billion project to modernize all of Hawaii’s commercial airports, Honolulu is getting wider taxiways and improved runway lighting.

read … Most Dangerous U.S. Airports

also: America's Safest Airports

Response: State DOT official criticizes article rating airport danger