Comments on: Airports–The media gets it right!

By: Bruce Landsberg

Bruce Landsberg — Mon, 04 Jul 2011 16:41:14 +0000

Herb….

If the airport were privately owned I’d agree completely but this is a public facility owned by the city. Would also agree if this were an isolated incident – it’s not.

The Airport and Airways trust fund is designed to handle expenditures like this. It is funded through GA fuel taxes, passenger ticket fees, and international arrival and departure taxes.

In my view this is a better expenditure of scare resources and while we are in the training business it’s usually more effective to redesign the aircraft or the airport than to depend on human reliability – we’re not especially – as a group. Good idea for another article – let me do some research on that and thanks for your comment.

By: Herb Ludgewait

Herb Ludgewait — Mon, 04 Jul 2011 02:29:56 +0000

Rerouting a main street at tax payer expense and citizen inconvience because pilots are not responsible enough to do their homework? Wait till the non-flying media gets ahold of this. ASI is supposed to inhance safety, not make excuses and expect the non-flying public to pay for our mistakes

By: Bruce Landsberg

Bruce Landsberg — Sun, 03 Jul 2011 22:02:38 +0000

All valid points – A few additional items for your consideration. The accident occurred at night/dusk so the fence may not have been as visible – ditto the displaced threshold. The pilot should have checked and flown it higher – we all agree.

However, there were 8 fatalities as a result of an overshoot a few years earlier. An EMAS system would have prevented that – at a fraction of the cost. Just as we remove telephone poles and redesign guard rails on the highways to prevent the sudden stop, so too with obstacles close to runways.

If humans just flew better all this would be moot. Brian, I have a semi story for another blog – thanks for reminding me .

By: Brian Knoblauch

Brian Knoblauch — Fri, 01 Jul 2011 22:05:11 +0000

Looking at the site on Google Earth/Street View the fence doesn’t appear to be much of an obstacle. It might be nice if it wasn’t there, but then really, if you’re low enough to hit that fence, then you could easily clip a semi driving down the road!

Are displaced thresholds rare out that way or something? We have a number of them around here, and if you were to come down a bit early, you’d be likely to impact a fairly large tree and have a long (most likely fatal) fall to the ground… Displaced thresholds are there for a reason and must be respected. Typically better to land a little bit long/run off the end than to land/crash before the runway even starts…

By: David Adams

David Adams — Fri, 01 Jul 2011 14:57:09 +0000

And what happens when the the new fence is installed and another pilot tries to land too short and hits the new fence. The runway over run serves no purpose. The excess pavement can be removed creating the same effect as the EMAS zone at far lower cost.

By: Jim Vroom

Jim Vroom — Fri, 01 Jul 2011 13:38:47 +0000

With all due respect to the pilots and families of hurt or deceased, hitting the fence
is PILOT ERROR. We can make things fool-proof … but NOT damn-fool-proof.
Even in gusty/wind shear etc … cutting it that close AT A DISPLACED THRESHOLD is p-poor peformance.

By: Larry

Larry — Fri, 01 Jul 2011 12:58:07 +0000

May sound a bit silly, but if the part of the runway that is the displaced threshold was painted green so it didn’t look like runway then maybe the pilot would not have made the mistake of lining up to the end of the runway. The FAA makes a continuous point of reminding pilots about runway incursions but doesn’t remind us much about runway markings and what a displaced threshold implies – that there is some sort of obstacle that needs to be avoided near the end of the runway.

By: GTH

GTH — Thu, 30 Jun 2011 18:30:52 +0000

I think the point is more about safety for all pilots and even people walking or driving in the area. Who cares how an incident happens. The fact is they do and sometimes people get hurt or die. Let’s fix this now before it is too late. The people against the project seem willing to live with the blood of others on their hands so let them find another way to get their jollys… maybe they could watch accidents on I95 or Rt.15. This is a stupid debate. Four accidents, one killing 8 people. Enough politics! Politics has gotten this country into a mess that will take decades to fix, if ever. FIX THE RUNWAY!

By: Herschel Smith

Herschel Smith — Wed, 29 Jun 2011 20:50:26 +0000

So you have never missed your spot or hit an area of turbulence on short final… If you do, you shouldn’t be killed or severely injured for what in any other circumstance would just be an incident. Humans all human make mistakes that is guaranteed.

By: Bob Van Zant

Bob Van Zant — Wed, 29 Jun 2011 19:01:48 +0000

That’s runway 24? With a 319′ displaced threshold? He hit a 12′ tall fence that was, according to the AF/D, 319′ + 20′ (339′) from the approach end of the runway? So much for crossing the threshold at 50′.