A Mexicana Airlines A320 aircraft overran a runway at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport (ORD) on July 18, 2008, just after 7PM local time. According to the airline, the aircraft, operating as Mexicana Flight MXA802 from Mexico City, had 138 passengers and 7 crew members on board. News reports say that one flight attendant was injured and was taken to the hospital. The flight attendant's injuries are said to be "not life-threatening."Many news reports have stated that the aircraft "overshot the runway," but, technically speaking, this is not true. The aircraft apparently landed on ORD runway 22L, but then overran the end of the runway and was stopped by the runway's arrestor bed. At the time of the overrun incident, the weather was reported to be rainy, with strong and gusty crosswinds. It is not known at this time if the weather played a causal role in the incident.
Passengers evacuated through an aft door of the aircraft, and descended to the runway via a stair truck. They were transferred from the runway to the terminal by bus.
This incident illustrates the value of arrestor beds at the end of runways. Arrestor beds have been installed just recently at both Chicago Midway Airport and O'Hare International Airport. The arrestor beds, officially known as Engineered Material Arresting Systems (EMAS), are areas of crushable material -- usually a mixture of water, foam and concrete -- beyond the threshold of a runway. The material is designed to crush under the weight of an aircraft, absorbing energy and gradually reducing the airplane's forward momentum until it stops, similar in concept to runaway truck ramps.
7 comments:
The EMAS systems at O'Hare had only been installed this month. Talk about good timing!!!
An Engineered materials arresting system (EMAS) is a bed of lightweight, crushable concrete built at the end of a runway. The purpose of an EMAS is to stop an aircraft overrun with no human injury and minimal aircraft damage (usually none). The aircraft is slowed by the loss of energy required to crush the concrete blocks. An EMAS is similar in concept to the runaway truck ramp made of gravel. It is intended to stop aircraft that have overshot a runway when there is an insufficient free space for a standard runway safety area (RSA).
Currently the only FAA approved producer of EMAS is Engineered Arresting Systems Corporation (ESCO). ESCO designs the EMAS beds and manufactures the concrete blocks at a facility in Logan Township, New Jersey. www.esco.zodiac.com
Simillar accident of A-320 in Sao Paulo-Brazil, but passengers were not that luck. 179 died.
Although a little late in posting. MX802 landed too fast and too far down the runway during the rain. We were working in the tower at the time and I noticed this, mentioned it outloud and was able to get some footage on a video feed from Terminal 5.
The pilot basically had a rolling stop. FAA tapes will show he thought he could make the hard left turn off the runway, but wasn't able too thus he had no chice but to drive into the EMAS system as he was still moving forward going about 100' into the EMAS bed.
Had the weather been clear and dry this wouldn't have been an issue.
Emergency crews were already being dispatched as a precaution.
After being moved, it was towed over to Terminal 5 where it departed the next day with no damage.
Thank you all for the additional information.
Anonymous said: "Similar accident of A-320 in Sao Paulo-Brazil, but passengers were not that luck. 179 died".
Absolutely not true. In Brazil accident it was a pilot procedure error (one TL at climb position instead of neutral since the plane was without one reverse), the plane overshot runway at 140 knots. It wouldn’t stop with or without EMAS. And... 199 died.
...and Mexicana plane also would stop with or without EMAS. It was very slow.
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