After an Amazon cargo plane overshot the runway Sunday at Miami International Airport, killing five people and leaving the pilot and co-pilot with minor injuries, you might wonder what would happen if the same situation unfolded here.
Since the crash, some have speculated that an Engineered Materials Arresting System (EMAS) could’ve stopped the 767 before lives were lost.
An EMAS is basically crumbled concrete that a plane sinks into, bringing it to a stop. There is an EMAS at the west end of San Diego International’s single runway.
“We first got our EMAS in 2006. We got a newer one installed in 2021,” said Mark Taylor, a senior airside operations duty manager at the airport.
He’s in charge of the safety of the runway and all areas where there’s movement on the ground. That means he’s something of an expert when it comes to the EMAS system.
"It’s like a sand or a pit that catches a truck (when their brakes fail)," Taylor said. "This is the same idea where it’s designed to catch an airplane.”
If a plane ran into the EMAS here, the runway would have to be closed for an investigation, Taylor said. But he said the airport would be ready to replace the EMAS quickly.
“You can replace the panels, so it’s not a one-use and it’s done," Taylor said.
"We’ve got extra panels on site so that if we were to have use one, we can remove the aircraft, remove the panels that were destroyed, so that it’s back in business and then we can open the runway again.”
San Diego’s EMAS has never been used. But if a situation like in Miami were to unfold here, at least there’s a good chance it wouldn’t end with the loss of life.
