Runway Safety Zones

Aviation Aviation News
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Well, the news media is trying to scare everyone again. This time it’s a report about the lack of 1000’ safety zones at the end of about half of the runways in use at Class B airfields in the U.S. I’m sure these could save lives in some crashes that have taken place (They site the ComAir crash and last year’s WN runway overrun at KMDW), but is this report really serving a purpose? The FAA spokesman they quote in the story says that actions are being taken to make sure that every runway has either the safety zone or an EMAS system in place by 2015. I realize there’s a good chance of an incident between now and then, but why make this out like someone is dragging their feet?

I’d like to know what the pilots out there think of these egulations and the systems themselves if they’ve ever had experience with them. As long as people want their airports close to the city (but, of course, not in THEIR back yard), the real estate is gonna be expensive and hard to come by. That’s MY opinion, but what do I know? It seems like this is aimed at getting someone in trouble (or at least making them look bad), rather than to alert the public to a real problem.

cnn.com/2006/US/11/03/runway … index.html

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yaaawn…

my 2 cents, there are two things that need to be focused on:

  1. pilots need to ensure they are using the correct runway (departing or arriving)

  2. prevent active runway incursions by crossing traffic.

that is all.

-alan

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I have some mixed feelings about many of these issues because I am always concerned about private property rights, land use restrictions, and aviation safety.

I suppose my solution would be that if a runway is not safe for a particular type of aircraft, it should not land there. That doesn’t mean you have to get rid of the runway. Hell, we recently had a plane land on a parallel taxiway - should we get rid of those as well?

There is a point at which diminishing returns on safety become so wasteful that they start to use resources that cost life. 5 minutes wasted is 5 minutes of life lost. 5 dollars wasted is enough to feed some whole villages for a couple of days. 5 minutes of CNN is too much for anybody.

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And that’s 5 minutes of CNN over a 15 day period!

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Or a 30-day period if it happens to be an election season. :angry: