Safety aspects of aircraft performance on wet and contaminated runways

The runway surface condition at airports is a critical safety concern. The exploratory study described in this paper has examined the influence of wet and contaminated runways on the takeoff and landing performance of aircraft. The operating problems that arise when taking off from or landing on wet or contaminated runways, are explained in detail. Certification of operations on wet and contaminated runways is reviewed. Tests conducted by NLR on water covered runways are briefly described. In order to quantify the degree to which the runway surface condition is associated with the probability of an accident, both accident and movement data for West-European Airports were collected from the Air Safety databases of NLR. Accident and movement data were evaluated for 136 airports. The accident sample comprised 91 overruns and veer-offs. The study concludes that there is a four-fold increase in the accident risk for aircraft operating on wet and contaminated runways. Paper presented at the Flight Safety Foundation (FSF), 10th annual European Aviation Safety Seminar, Amsterdam, 16-18 March 1998.