Stabilised approaches provide the key to reducing excursions, says the Flight Safety Foundation's Jim Burin, explaining: "Not every unstabilised approach ends up as a runway excursion but almost every runway excursion starts as an unstable approach." Calls for better procedures have been emerging from recent studies, including: manufacturers must provide better advice about ground run on contaminated runways crews must be trained for operating on contaminated surfaces and finally there must be a standard for advising pilots of runway conditions.
At present, Burin notes, there is no requirement for manufacturers to provide performance for non-normal runway conditions, so they do not do so. He adds that all airlines need a true no-fault go-around policy, and provides this advice for investigators: "The fact that aircrew may have made an error can be the start of the investigation, but it should not be the end of it."
Source: Flight International
