MIAMI (VINnews) — Questions are being raised about runway safety at Miami International Airport after an Amazon cargo plane overran a runway Sunday, killing five people and injuring five others.
MIA does not have an Engineered Materials Arresting System, or EMAS, a bed of crushable material designed to slow and stop aircraft that run beyond the end of a runway. The FAA says such systems have helped save at least 497 lives.
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WPLG Local 10 reported Monday that MIA instead has a 1,000-foot runway safety area, which meets FAA requirements for airports without EMAS. Airline Captain Francisco Diaz told Local 10 that an EMAS system could have prevented the Boeing 767 from reaching the parking lot beyond the runway.
The aircraft overran the runway at about 2 p.m. Sunday after arriving from San Juan, Puerto Rico, crossing a roadway and striking several vehicles.
Diaz, who previously flew the same aircraft, said video appeared to show an unstable approach and suggested the crew should have aborted the landing. He cautioned that investigators must determine whether mechanical problems, including possible brake or hydraulic failures, played a role.
The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating the crash and is expected to examine the aircraft’s landing, braking, weather conditions and mechanical systems.
Diaz urged Miami-Dade officials to consider installing EMAS as part of the airport’s planned infrastructure improvements.
EMAS has been devloped for airports that have shorter runways and are primarly for smaller aircraft. While the EMAS system has stopped larger aircraft it is very expensive to implement for larger commerical jets. It appears that the 767 touched down further down the runway and at a higher speed that it should have. At the time of touch down it was too late to abort the landing as a 767-300 requires a minimum of 150knots speed to be airborne (VR) and possibly more depending on load and fuel. At the end of the day this will most likely be attributed to piilot error. A 767-300 requires a minimum of 4000 ft to land, MIA’s shortest runway is 8600 feet and the longest is over 13,000ft, The Amazon plane landed on runway 30 which 9355 feet, more than adaquate to land a fully loaded 767-300 if touch down is at the begining of the runway and not the middle