An international pilots group has said that there is a need to improve runway safety at airports worldwide.

The International Federation of Air Line Pilots Associations (IFALPA) has said that authorities should look at introducing longer safety run-off areas at the ends of runways.

The IFALPA's call comes after the accident involving a Grupo Taca Airbus A320 at the major international airport in Honduras, Toncontin International, on 30th May.

The safety over-run area at the end of Toncontin's 6,112-foot runway measures just 49 feet - far below the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO)'s recommended safety over-run area length of at least 295 feet.

Five people died and 65 were injured when the A320 skidded off the runway, through the over-run area and into a steep drop and a road.

IFALPA said the accident proved that there is a need for airports and authorities to work together to improve runway end safety areas (RESA).

The organisation said it "deplores the fact that it remains possible for an airport serving a major city to be noncompliant with internationally agreed minimum standards for runway end safety areas".

Last year 199 people were killed at Brazil's Sao Paulo Congonhas airport when a TAM A320 skidded off the airport runway and into a nearby cargo building and gas station.

Runway End Safety Area Improvements

IFALPA said that "all possible measures to reduce the frequency of this type of event should be adopted".
It recommended that if the present ICAO minimum standard for RESA dimensions "were to be made a required element of airport design, the safety of passengers, crews, airport workers and airport passers-by would be dramatically improved".

The group said that airports which do not have adequate runway run-off areas present "a significant, and wholly unacceptable, risk".

It added: "IFALPA argues that the risk of these incidents escalating into accidents that cause injury and death can be mitigated by establishing properly designed RESA at the end of all runways where air transport operations take place".

Engineered Materials Arresting System

If an airport's location made it impossible for RESA of these dimensions to be built, the group said, then work should be done to introduce an Engineered Materials Arresting System (EMAS) which could be deployed in an emergency.

An EMAS is an arrestor bed, made out of crushable concrete blocks. If an aircraft were to overrun, then the energy of the aircraft would be transferred into the concrete as it was crushed. Tests show an aircraft can be brought to a halt within the confines of the concrete bed quickly, and with minimal damage to the aircraft itself.

Indeed, EMAS has already prevented serious accidents at New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport involving a Boeing 747 and MD-11.

IFALPA added that according to its own research, runway excursions or run-offs make up nearly one-quarter of gloabl air transport accidents and incidents. It said they take place, on average, once every week.

Source - Airport International's Aviation Correspondent

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