Planning to go to Hawai'i? A report by U.S. Sen. Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J., found more than half of U.S. commercial airports - including Los Angeles International, Chicago's O'Hare International and Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International - have runways that lack either a 1,000-foot margin at the end of a runway as a safety zone or an "arrestor bed" to slow overrunning aircraft. Scott Ishikawa, spokesman for Hawai'i DOT, said the protections may be physically impossible to provide at some Hawai'i airports, such as Lana'i airport, where the edge of one runway is at the lip of a gulch. "There may be physical limitations for certain runways that we'll have to look at."Sunday, November 05, 2006
[hawai'i] at the end of the runway – a chasm
Planning to go to Hawai'i? A report by U.S. Sen. Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J., found more than half of U.S. commercial airports - including Los Angeles International, Chicago's O'Hare International and Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International - have runways that lack either a 1,000-foot margin at the end of a runway as a safety zone or an "arrestor bed" to slow overrunning aircraft. Scott Ishikawa, spokesman for Hawai'i DOT, said the protections may be physically impossible to provide at some Hawai'i airports, such as Lana'i airport, where the edge of one runway is at the lip of a gulch. "There may be physical limitations for certain runways that we'll have to look at."
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
San Fransisco is a beautiful airport to arrive at, edging the Bay, it really looks like you are going to end up in the water.
ReplyDeleteSomebody told me that indeed that happened with a Chinese flight, the back end hung over the edge, but everyone escaped ok.
James,
ReplyDeleteSweet memories of landing and taking off at Kai Tak on Kowloon. My third ever flight and the third most spectacular.
Took off from London to Tehran, thence to Bangkok and finally coming in over Hong Kong, dodging hills and buildings and landing in the sea! Sixteen years old, thrilled, excited and petrified that we had made it but the pilot had lost it.
Leaving was even better: none of this namby-pamby turn onto the runway, do a rolling start and gently accelerate. No, this was massive revs, release brakes, physically crush back into your seat and go, hell for leather, straight at the ocean and then, joy of joys, a rising left turn to dodge the mountains.
No run-off?
Wimps.
STB