Look at this.

P. Timothy Siemens, PE
Garver, LLC

From: Griffin, Michael, J 
Sent: Friday, January 22, 2010 9:35 AM
Subject: EMAS works

 

CHARLESTON, W.Va. (WSAZ) -- Officials with Yeager Airport in Charleston say "we avoided a tragedy here tonight" after a U.S. Airways plane aborted a take-off and stopped about 125 feet
from the edge of the mountain.

Investigators with the National Transportation Safety Board are still investigating why the pilot aborted take-off.

At a news conference Tuesday evening (1/19/10), Yeager Airport officials said the Engineered Materials Arresting System (EMAS) did its job and saved all 34 lives. There were 30 passengers,
one infant and 3 crew members on board.

The EMAS is a safety over-run area that is 425 feet long and equals about 1,000 feet of regular runway. The EMAS consists of layers of foam that are anywhere from six to 20 inches deep,
covered by a thin layer of concrete.

Kanawha County Commissioner Dave Hardy says the plane's wheels embedded into the EMAS. There are skid marks on the runway several hundred feet long.

The EMAS safety system was installed in November 2008. It cost about $5 million.

"The EMAS system clearly saved a tragedy here," Commissioner Hardy said. "I think we've got a lot to be thankful for."

Officials say there appears to be no other damage to the plane.

Yeager airport will re-open once the plane is removed from the runway. That is expected to happen before midnight. 

 

From a State Aviation Official:

Just thought I'd share some pictures of another EMAS save that I received from the FAA. This happened 2 days ago at Charleston, WV (Yeager). The CRJ was departing Runway 23 when it aborted
it's takeoff for reasons unknown. Left more than 1,500' of skid marks before ending up in the EMAS bed. 

For those of you unfamiliar with KCRW, they have quite the dropoff at the departure end of Runway 23 (last picture). 

Just goes to show you the benefit of EMAS. No injuries to passengers or crew, and no significant damage to the aircraft. It was towed out of the EMAS with the assistance of a tug. The
EMAS bed is one of the newer types, where they just have to replace the individual blocks rather than the whole bed. Had there been no EMAS, its hard to say what would've happened had
the aircraft gone over the side of the hill.