Comments on: 34 People on US Airways Express Jet in West Virginia Love EMAS

By: Nicholas Barnard

Nicholas Barnard — Thu, 02 Jun 2011 19:27:53 +0000

Hi Frank. Its basically a designed concrete block that is weak enough that a plane won’t pop to the top side of it, but strong enough that as the plane pushes through it it slows down.

I’m not sure if it’d be able to stop another plane, but given the picture that most the material isn’t used, it probably would have some affect..

By: nicolas

nicolas — Sat, 17 Jul 2010 04:51:06 +0000

I’ve seen topdressing pilots here in New Zealand using hilltop strips where they routinely leave the end of the short strip heavily loaded with insufficient airspeed to climb. They know there’s plenty of air for them to drop into where they can build some speed before climbing out of valley. Just sayin …

By: West Virginia Email List

West Virginia Email List — Mon, 17 May 2010 05:12:45 +0000

There is still a significant length of EMAS in place. It could stop another similar event………

By: JAG FA

JAG FA — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 21:28:10 +0000

I came home to CRW on this plane. It had a good experienced crew and I’m sure they made the right choice. I am very thankful for EMAS and that everyone was safe. I could have just as easliy be going out on this plane instead of arriving.

By: traveljule

traveljule — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 21:24:54 +0000

No offense but duh, WV is all mountains and you pretty much have to build on the mountain top. :-)

By: Airport Engineer

Airport Engineer — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 20:21:46 +0000

@ CF: I do know for sure. There would have been 34 bodies and a twisted pile of metal.

By: CF

CF — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 20:04:30 +0000

myriamparis wrote:

Also, why did this plane abort so late? Do we know? This is an atypically skimpy entry!

I think most of your questions have been answered very well by other readers. Not sure why you think this is a skimpy entry. We don't know why the plane aborted so late but that's not the point. This is about EMAS, and while I don't know for sure, it seems quite clear that there would have been at least significant injuries were EMAS not installed.

By: BunnieB.

BunnieB. — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 18:21:09 +0000

@myriamparis

The plane stopped appx 250 feet from the edge. Without the EMAS, it would have kept going.
Also, CrankyFlier did not say why it was aborted, because the FAA is still investigating. It’s not exactly being “rushed” because it was an incident, not an accident because there were no injuries.
There are approximately 4400 EMAS blocks at CRW. The plane “used up” 240 blocks. They will hopefully be replaced within the next week, however, the temperatures have to be above freezing for the material to be installed.
I think CF did a great job with this post. There wasn’t much information available for him when writing the article. He did a great job with what he knew!

By: ATP

ATP — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 17:49:01 +0000

@ Nicholas Barnard: So, My wife's parents can't pronounce our last name, i could care less about a city i fly into twice a month

By: Nicholas Barnard

Nicholas Barnard — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 16:03:21 +0000

@ ATP: Arrrrrrrgggghhhhh! You just hit my biggest pet peeve about the commercial airline industry: an inability to pronounce and spell lesser known cities correctly. It's Binghamton, no P!! I've heard one too many USAir and USAir Express flight attendant stumble over this name. It's pronounced like it's spelled Bing-ham-ton.