Warnings in Canada
From the aftermath of the Air France Flight 358 accident in Toronto, the Transportation Safety Board of Canada recommended changes to the runway safety areas on runways at Canadian airports.
TSB suggest airports need to employ EMAS (engineered material arresting system) on Canadian runways by constructing a 300 m (as per ICAO standard of 60 m + 240 m or FAA 300 m) overrun at the end of all runways.
The EMAS can be of benefit where the aircraft leaves the runway neatly at the end, and there are several clear examples where it saved an aircraft from a serious accident. However EMAS is not without its own problems. It needs almost as much length as the RESA - an EMAS system designed to stop a Boeing 747 leaving the runway at 70 knots speed needs to be 183m long (which is not much less than the 240m for the RESA). Any faster, and the aircraft overruns. And if an EMAS is damaged, it will require out of hours repair. This does not mean that the runway must be closed after an overrun, as the whole EMAS arrestor bed is still effective even if there are furrows left by tire tracks across a portion of the arrestor bed.
Read more about this topic: Runway Safety Area
Famous quotes containing the words warnings and/or canada:
“Logic and hope fade somewhat by thirty-six, when endings seem more like clear warnings than useful experience.”
—Jane O’Reilly, U.S. feminist and humorist. The Girl I Left Behind, ch. 2 (1980)
“This universal exhibition in Canada of the tools and sinews of war reminded me of the keeper of a menagerie showing his animals’ claws. It was the English leopard showing his claws.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)