Group hosts Swedish expert to get EMAS back on the runway
THE benefits of adding Engineered Materials Arresting System – EMAS – technology to the ends of Guernsey’s airport runway will be outlined to deputies and members of the public at a number of events next week.
The presentations will be delivered by Mikael Larsson, a director of Swedish runway safety company Runway Safe.
He will first speak to States members and other government officials at a private event on Monday, before delivering two talks on Tuesday.
These will be at the OGH at 2pm and the Guernsey Aero Club at 7.30pm, and both are free to attend.
Mr Larsson has been invited to speak by Joe Mooney, a former deputy and treasury lead on Economic Development, who is also part of the EMAS-supporting Guernsey Aviation Action Group.
Mr Mooney hoped the events would address some of the ‘misinformation’ surrounding EMAS – a system where crushable material is installed at the end of a runway to help stop an aircraft if it overruns – that he said had been present in the public domain.
This included what he claimed was a ‘factually incorrect’ statement made by Aurigny CEO Nico Bezuidenhout, who, when discussing the overrun of an Aurigny flight on the western end of the runway in April, said that the airport would probably have had to have been closed for days rather than a couple of hours had EMAS been in place.
‘The Civil Aviation Authority decides when it is safe to remove an aircraft after an incident and when it is safe to reopen an airport, that could be hours or days, but EMAS doesn’t necessarily mean it will take longer,' he said.
He said the technology could allow for three or four overruns before the material needed to be repaired, and emphasised the enhanced safety of the system.
‘A 100m-long EMAS area is equal to a 300m-long grassy run-off, so aircraft can come to a stop far sooner and therefore limit injuries and damage far more effectively.’
The States debated EMAS last September as part of a wider debate on extending the airport runway. An amendment from Deputy John Dyke garnered support from only three other deputies.
Campaigners hope that EMAS would enable larger aircraft to safely use the island's runway and would attract new carriers and services.
