Introduction of Global Reporting Format: Summary of the First Winter Season in Poland

Over the years, Global Reporting Format (GRF) was the first major change in the approach to evaluate runway conditions. The greatest impulse for this new regulation were incidents and accidents related mainly to runway excursions that occurred because of unfavorable weather conditions, when not only aircraft and different airport facilities but also human health and lives suffered. To better understand these changes, their advantages and their disadvantages, as well as the challenges that arose, an expert survey was carried out with duty officers of Polish airports, who directly made an assessment of runway conditions. Beside strengths of the GRF approach, research results show its weaknesses and uncertainties, especially when using the Runway Condition Assessment Matrix. In addition, in the article are presented a brief GRF description together with comparison with the previous reporting system and a discussion about air accident statistics related to a runway excursion, as well as a description and discussion of one selected air incident that took place in Poland.