How The Creation Of EMAS Made A Drastic Change To Airplane Security

Very merely, EMAS is an “arrestor mattress” positioned at each ends of a runway, which is stiff sufficient to be walked or pushed on, however tender sufficient to crumble beneath the load of a airplane. Fabricated from both crushable mobile cement or silica, coated with a skinny “crust” of poured concrete, EMAS is designed to soundly sluggish an airplane by bogging it down. Think about the impact of rushing off a freeway right into a plowed subject, and you will get the concept. An EMAS arrestor mattress can deliver an airplane that leaves the runway at 80 miles per hour safely and rapidly to a cease.

You would possibly assume that essentially the most harmful a part of a flight is while you’re cruising at altitude, miles above the earth. However actually, most airplane accidents occur near the bottom, both throughout takeoff or touchdown. Though the takeoff part solely accounts for a fraction of a median flight time, it is the place 14% of deadly accidents happen. The ultimate strategy and touchdown part is (statistically) much more harmful, accounting for 49% of deadly accidents (based mostly on knowledge from 2008-2017).

There are numerous causes for this, which embody the danger of engine failure earlier than the airplane has constructed up sufficient velocity to get safely airborne, the hazard of hen strikes, and moist or icy runways, which could trigger a airplane to skid on touchdown. In every of these eventualities, including extra area on the ends of runways offers a invaluable security margin. In reality, runway security space (RSA) requirements have been put in place within the Eighties, particularly because of this. However not each airport has the posh of extending its runways by the really helpful distance. For passengers flying from these airports, EMAS would possibly make the distinction between life and demise.