Route-Based Detection of Conflicting ATC Clearances on Airports

Runway incursions are among the most serious safety concerns in air traffic control. Traditional A-SMGCS level 2 safety systems detect runway incursions with the help of surveillance information only. In the context of SESAR, complementary safety systems are emerging that also use other information in addition to surveillance, and that aim at warning about potential runway incursions at earlier points in time. One such system is “conflicting ATC clearances”, which processes the clearances entered by the air traffic controller into an electronic flight strips system and cross-checks them for potentially dangerous inconsistencies. The cross-checking logic may be implemented directly based on the clearances and on surveillance data, but this is cumbersome. We present an approach that instead uses ground routes as an intermediate layer, thereby simplifying the core safety logic.