The Wall Street Journal‘s latest “The Middle Seat” column discusses A Common Runway Hazard:
Despite nearly three decades of warnings from safety experts, the U.S. still has more than 300 runways at commercial airports that don’t have adequate overrun areas to help avoid accidents like the crash two weeks ago of an Air France jumbo jet that ran off a Toronto runway into a ravine.Federal standards require an extra 1,000 feet of overrun area at both ends — where planes can skid to a stop without hitting obstacles — but under current rules, airports aren’t required to retrofit existing runways. The National Transportation Safety Board has been pushing for runway-overrun improvements since 1977, and issued recommendations again in 2000 after a Southwest Airlines jet went off the runway in Burbank, Calif., and slid into a gas station.