Transportation officials say the number of runway incidents that pose a danger of planes colliding dropped by half over the last 12 months.
Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood and Federal Aviation Administrator Randy Babbitt said Friday that there were six incidents during the federal budget year ending Sept. 30 in which a plane on the wrong runway or crossing a runway risked colliding with another plane. There were 12 such incidents in the 2009 budget year.
That's a dramatic drop from 67 incidents in 2000.
Reducing such incidents has long been a top safety priority for FAA. The deadliest aviation accident in history was a 1977 runway collision between to airliners at Tenerife (ten-uh-REEF'), one of the Canary Islands.
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