The Answer to the Runway Overrun Issue

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EMAS: The Answer to the Runway Overrun Issue John R. Boyett Jr. Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University Abstract Runway overruns have been and continue to be a problem for the airline industry. To avoid runway overruns the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) requires that commercial service airports, regulated under Part 139 safety rules and federally obligated, have a standard runway safety area where possible. The FAA requires the runway safety area to be 500 feet wide and 1,000 feet beyond the end of every runway. Most airports were built before this requirement was in place and this left many airports out of regulations because of encroachment on the airport. The ESCO Corporation developed the Engineered Arresting Systems (EMAS) to provide airports with an answer to the runway overrun problem. The EMAS system proved to be so successful that the FAA approved to pay for the systems to be installed in airports. What is the runway overrun issue? Basically a runway overrun is when an airplane goes off the end of the runway; either on takeoff or landing. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) information, have reported that runway overruns during landing. About 10 incidents/accidents happen every year with different degrees of damage, and many accidents resulted in deaths. Causes of landing overruns may begin as early as the approach briefing or occur once the airplane is on the ground and decelerating. Understanding the root causes of runway overruns is fundamental to mitigating them. Some of the leading factors reasons runway overruns occur are: runway conditions, long landings, speed to fast, incorrect decision to land, aquaplaning, unstable approaches, airplanes touching down outside the touchdown zone, landing on a runway that was not dry, and landing with a tailwind of 5 knots or greater.

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