Mon, May 23, 2005
Stop That Jet
Teterboro Airport announced plans last week to install systems
designed to keep aircraft from overshooting the runway. The
arrestor bed systems could be installed in as soon as two
years.
"We feel we have a responsibility to this community," said
Anthony Coscia, chairman of the Port Authority of New York and New
Jersey, which operates Teterboro Airport. "This is not a cure-all.
It's not going to stop everything from happening."
The arrestor bed system uses lightweight concrete blocks at the
end of the runway that crush under the weight of a heavy aircraft
and drag it to a stop. The Port Authority has used the systems for
several years at La Guardia and Kennedy International airports.
The February 2nd crash of a Challenger jet that failed to take
off injured two motorists as it smashed through an airport fence,
crossed six lanes of traffic and crashed into a building. Since the
crash, the Port Authority has been pressured by elected officials
and a lawsuit by one of the injured motorists to install the
systems. Officials say they had been looking into putting the
systems in place even before the accident. (file photo of test
below)
The project will include relocation of about half a mile of
Redneck avenue in it's $20 million cost. The roadway will be
shifted about 1,000 feet east.
The Port Authority is also ordering new fire trucks for the
airport, including a "Snozzle" that can pierce a fuselage skin and
fill the aircraft cabin with fire suppression foam. One was
borrowed from Newark Liberty International Airport to extinguish
the cabin of the crashed Challenger.
But could this type of system have stopped the Challenger? Only
300 feet are available between the end of the accident runway and
the road it crossed. Kent Thompson of the Engineered Arresting
Systems Corp. told The Record of Bergen County that a system could
probably be designed to stop aircraft traveling between 70 to 75
miles per hour.
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