Narrative:

I was riding along with airport operations during their daily airport surface safety inspection at hillsboro. We were on taxiway B5 near the GA terminal heading southwest towards the runway hold line for runway 2. The driver did not appear to be slowing down; so I asked whether he was going to get clearance to cross the hold line. The driver responded no that he didn't typically get clearance to drive this short route; which proceeds towards the runway 50 ft; then makes a 90 degree turn south and exits across another runway hold line 75 ft away. The driver stated that normally the ground control frequency is too congested to warrant a call to ground or tower to get permission to drive this short segment inside the movement area.I pointed out that this was a runway incursion and could have been avoided by driving an alternate route 200 ft away across the ramp. The driver indicated that was not acceptable because he might miss a piece of FOD or other pavement problem if he did not drive the route inside the runway hold lines and that; while technically it was a runway incursion; he would not do this route if runway 2/20 was active. Since it is only active a small percentage of the time; he did not see a safety problem.I believe this event is a result of a safety culture problem and demonstrates complacency on the part of airport staff. If the staff treats the hold lines as 'optional' for them; how are drivers at the fbos and flight schools going to take them seriously? In talking with the ATC manager; while runway 2 is not the active runway sometimes; they do use that runway often for landings.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: The reporter; whose technical function is not stated; reported that airport staff at HIO routinely operate ground vehicles across runway hold short lines without ATC clearance while performing airport surface inspections.

Narrative: I was riding along with airport operations during their daily airport surface safety inspection at Hillsboro. We were on Taxiway B5 near the GA terminal heading southwest towards the runway hold line for Runway 2. The driver did not appear to be slowing down; so I asked whether he was going to get clearance to cross the hold line. The driver responded no that he didn't typically get clearance to drive this short route; which proceeds towards the runway 50 FT; then makes a 90 degree turn south and exits across another runway hold line 75 FT away. The driver stated that normally the Ground Control frequency is too congested to warrant a call to Ground or Tower to get permission to drive this short segment inside the movement area.I pointed out that this was a runway incursion and could have been avoided by driving an alternate route 200 FT away across the ramp. The driver indicated that was not acceptable because he might miss a piece of FOD or other pavement problem if he did not drive the route inside the runway hold lines and that; while technically it was a runway incursion; he would not do this route if Runway 2/20 was active. Since it is only active a small percentage of the time; he did not see a safety problem.I believe this event is a result of a safety culture problem and demonstrates complacency on the part of airport staff. If the staff treats the hold lines as 'optional' for them; how are drivers at the FBOs and flight schools going to take them seriously? In talking with the ATC Manager; while Runway 2 is not the active runway sometimes; they do use that runway often for landings.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of April 2012 and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.