The Federal Aviation Administration is betting that artificial intelligence can prevent the next runway disaster. The agency has partnered with Palantir to deploy an AI tool designed to sift through massive aviation datasets and flag potential problems before planes collide on the ground.
A partnership forged in crisis
A fatal midair collision in Washington in January 2025 killed 67 people, and a severe runway incident in New York shortly after that refocused national attention on aviation safety.
Congress has provided funding through appropriations totaling $12.5 billion toward an estimated $20 billion-plus needed for broad aviation system overhauls. The runway safety work is one slice of that spending.
Palantir secured a contract worth up to $18.4 million with the agency back in June 2021 for its Foundry platform, which supports aircraft certification processes and safety monitoring. This latest runway safety initiative builds on that existing relationship, extending Palantir’s AI tools into operational risk prediction rather than just back-office certification work.
