Late this afternoon, a PSA Airlines CRJ-200 aircraft overran a runway at Yeager Airport (CRW), Charleston, WV, following a rejected takeoff. The aircraft, operating as US Airways Express Flight JIA 2495, was departing on a scheduled passenger flight to Charlotte, NC, at the time of the incident. It came to a stop about 130 feet into the EMAS (Engineered Material Arresting System) area beyond the end of Runway 23 at CRW. No injuries have been reported among the three crew members and 30 passengers on board.The incident occurred on January 19, 2010 at approximately 16:20 local time in Charleston. The reason for the rejected takeoff has not been reported.
WSAZ.com, reporting on a press conference held at Yeager Airport, quoted an official who said that there were "skid marks on the runway approximately 2,000 feet long." The good news is that the EMAS, which is 425 feet in length, obviously worked as intended. The aircraft reportedly stopped "about 125 feet from the edge of the mountain." The EMAS was installed at Yeager Airport in November of 2008.
By the way, @YeagerAirport did an exemplary job of live-tweeting information about the incident and its effects on the airport's operations in real time on Twitter. The photo above also was tweeted to the Yeager Airport Twitpic page.
[Photo Source]
