January 25, 2010
Yeager OKs US Airways’ insurer to collaborate on repair
CHARLESTON, W.Va. – Yeager Airport’s construction committee on Monday authorized US Airways’ insurance carrier to work directly with the ESCO Corp. of Logan Township, N.J., to repair the airport’s EMAS safety zone, damaged in Tuesday’s aborted takeoff of a US Airways Express jet.
The $700,000 job is expected to involve five nights of work – four to prepare the site for the installation of the cellular concrete blocks used in the arresting system, and one to install the blocks.
Construction will take place at night to avoid interfering with the Charleston airport’s flight schedule.
It has yet to be determined when the repairs will begin. Temperatures need to be above freezing in order to properly .
About 240 of the 4,000 EMAS blocks used in the arresting system were damaged or destroyed when the Canadair regional jet with 33 people aboard used it to come to a safe stop near the end of Yeager’s main runway.
Airport director Rick Atkinson said the jet was traveling at about 57 miles per hour when it rolled 130 feet into the 440-foot-long safety zone. He said the EMAS bed could have safely stopped the same plane at speeds as high as 80 knots, or about 92 miles per hour.
The EMAS zone is listed as closed on FAA bulletins until repairs can be made, forcing pilots to recalculate minimum takeoff lengths and weight allowances.
“The EMAS area does still have some stopping power, since only about five percent of the blocks were affected,” Atkinson said, but fliers will regard the system as being out of commission until repairs are made and the FAA approves the work.
Atkinson said an airport executive in upstate New York has asked for photos of the EMAS-arrested US Airways jet for use in explaining how the system works to his board of directors, who are contemplating an EMAS installation.
The US Airways Express jet involved in last week’s incident has been flown to a Canadair repair facility in Bridgeport for a thorough examination for possible damage before returning to the carrier’s flight schedule.