ROANOKE, Va. — Passengers are sharing their experiences after a United Airlines flight overshot the runway at Roanoke-Blacksburg Regional Airport on Wednesday night.
The flight from Dulles International Airport made a hard landing around 10 p.m. and continued rolling until it hit a bed of crushable concrete blocks designed to stop aircraft safely.
"It suddenly went down at a very hard and very late landing," passenger Steve Harrison told WDBJ.
The safety system, called an Engineered Materials Arrestor System (EMAS), is specifically designed for shorter runways like the one in Roanoke.
"I've never felt plane brakes go on so strongly before," Debra Tatar said.
The plane was carrying 53 passengers. No injuries were reported, though the incident gave many people a scare.
Passengers aboard the Embraer 145 were bused to the terminal and law enforcement released them to go home a little before midnight, officials said.
Airport officials credit the EMAS technology with preventing a potentially worse outcome.
"We're incredibly grateful that technology performed as it should have, incredibly grateful there's no injuries and for the fast response of all of our first responders," Alexa Brihel with Roanoke-Blacksburg Regional Airport said. "It did what it was supposed to do. The technology is pretty amazing when you think about it."
This was the third save this month by an engineered materials arresting system, according to the FAA. On Sept. 3, an arresting system stopped a Gulfstream G150 with two people aboard that overran the runway at Chicago Executive Airport. On the same day, a Bombardier Challenger 300 with four people on board was stopped when it went beyond the runway during landing at Boca Raton Airport. No serious injuries were reported in either case, the FAA said. There are currently 122 such systems at 70 U.S. airports.
All runways at the airport were closed for a time. One runway reopened after midnight to arriving and departing traffic, but the runway where the overrun occurred remained closed, the airport said.
Delays continued at the Roanoke airport Thursday morning, but most flights were on time by afternoon, officials said.
Virginia State Police are working with the National Transportation Safety Board to investigate what caused the incident.
This story was initially reported by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy. To learn more about how we use AI in our newsroom, click here. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
