A structured historical and analytical repository of AGL failures, organised into 25 engineering divisions — covering equipment, circuits, installation, environment, control systems, operations, reliability and root-cause investigation. Every failure record answers one question: this failure happened — what happened, why did it happen, what evidence proves it, what was done, and how do we prevent it happening again?
Distinct from the Troubleshooting Atlas — the Atlas answers “I have a fault now, how do I diagnose and fix it?”, while the Failure Database is the historical, evidence-backed record of failures already investigated.
Search by keyword or filter by category. Divisions range from equipment- and circuit-specific failure catalogues through to root-cause methodology, severity classification, reliability trending, and the master failure-record architecture.
Runway and taxiway fixture failures, plus core component failures — LED modules, drivers, lenses, seals, and housings.
Cable insulation breakdown, open/short circuits, earth faults, connector failures, and other core electrical failure modes.
CCR output instability, thyristor and controller failures, protection trips, communication faults, and cooling-system failures.
Isolation transformer insulation breakdown, winding and core damage, water ingress, overheating, and terminal/lead failures.
Cable degradation, joint and termination failures, plus connector corrosion, contact resistance, and seal/locking failures.
Base-can corrosion, frangible-coupling failure, loose mounting, foundation settlement, and structural/hardware damage.
PLC and SCADA faults, network and communication failures, HMI and control-panel failures, and control-logic errors.
Installation, testing/commissioning, maintenance, and documentation errors that originate from human and procedural factors.
Lightning, flooding, sand, snow/ice, UV, salt corrosion, and other weather- and environment-driven failure modes.
Runway/taxiway outages, multiple-circuit failures, wildlife and vehicle impact, and other operational disruption events.
PAPI/APAPI unit, lamp/LED, alignment, elevation/azimuth, and optical-window failures affecting glide-path indication.
Airfield sign LED module, driver, illumination, mounting, and structural failures across taxiway and runway signage.
Approach lighting fixture, crossbar, pole, and foundation failures, plus optical, circuit, and weather-related damage.
Stop bar and runway guard light illumination, flashing, control, alignment, and structural failure modes.
Earth-continuity and bonding failures across fixtures, transformers, signs, CCRs, and lightning/surge protection systems.
Base-can and civil-interface failures — corrosion, flooding, drainage, foundation, and cable-entry/sealing problems.
Insulation-resistance, continuity, earth-resistance, functional, photometric, and acceptance test failures at commissioning.
Failures introduced during maintenance — incorrect procedures, torque, sealing, calibration, spares, and documentation gaps.
Premature component failure, manufacturing/design defects, supplier-quality issues, and product-life/obsolescence trends.
LED-system degradation, smart-sensor and IoT faults, cybersecurity issues, and software/firmware and digital-twin errors.
Structured RCA categories — electrical, mechanical, human, procedural — plus 5-Why, fishbone, and fault-tree methods.
Severity and criticality classification, from safety-critical to non-critical, and operational, financial, and downtime impact.
Failure-rate, MTBF/MTTR, and availability metrics, plus monthly/seasonal trend analysis and failure-hotspot identification.
Immediate, temporary, and permanent corrective actions; preventive-action programs; and structured lessons-learned capture.
The master record layer — 18-field failure records, photographic/test evidence, and a tagged failure-intelligence index.
Every record in the database follows the same 18-field structure, so any failure — from a single edge-light outage to a full CCR shutdown — can be searched, compared, and trended consistently.
The Troubleshooting Atlas answers “I have a fault now — how do I diagnose and fix it?” The Failure Database answers “this failure happened — what happened, why, what evidence proves it, what was done, and how do we stop it recurring?” Kept strictly separate, then linked end-to-end, the two form a genuine AGL Failure Intelligence Engine rather than a simple fault list.
Quick answers about the AGL Failure Database and how its 25 divisions are organised.
The AGL Failure Database is a structured historical and analytical repository of Airfield Ground Lighting failures, organised into 25 engineering divisions. It covers equipment, circuits, installation, environment, control systems, operations, reliability and root-cause investigation, and each record documents what happened, root cause, evidence, corrective action and prevention.
It is organised into 25 divisions that can be browsed by keyword or filtered by category: Equipment, Circuits & Electrical, Mechanical & Civil, Control & Technology, Human & Process, Environmental & Ops, Testing & Commissioning, Reliability, RCA & Improvement, and Records & Evidence.
Divisions 01–20 are the failure catalogues, covering lighting fixtures, electrical failures, CCRs, isolation transformers, cables and connectors, mechanical and structural failures, control systems, human and installation failures, environmental failures, operational incidents, PAPI/APAPI, airfield signs, approach lighting, stop bars and runway guard lights, earthing and bonding, base cans and civil interfaces, testing and commissioning, maintenance-induced failures, product reliability and emerging technology.
They are the analytical and improvement layers. Division 21 covers root cause analysis, Division 22 severity and criticality, Division 23 reliability and failure-trend analysis, Division 24 corrective action, preventive action and lessons learned, and Division 25 the master failure record, evidence and intelligence layer.
Every record follows the same 18-field structure: failure ID, equipment/system, airport/project, failure date, operating conditions, symptoms, initial observations, root cause analysis, corrective action, preventive action, applicable standards, related products, related drawings, related SOPs, related case studies, lessons learned, references and revision history.
The Troubleshooting Atlas answers “I have a fault now — how do I diagnose and fix it?” The Failure Database answers “this failure happened — what happened, why, what evidence proves it, what was done, and how do we stop it recurring?” Kept strictly separate, then linked end to end, the two form an AGL Failure Intelligence Engine rather than a simple fault list.
Every record answers one question: this failure happened, so what happened, why did it happen, what evidence proves it, what was done and how do we stop it recurring.
The database links a failure record to its RCA, troubleshooting procedure, corrective action, maintenance action, inspection point, testing procedure, lessons learned and reliability trend, running end to end from the failure record through to the reliability trend.
A repository this size gives you the failure, the evidence and the corrective action — but recognising which division a new fault belongs to, and why, still comes down to understanding AGL systems at a level no database can substitute for.
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