ROANOKE, Va. – On Wednesday at the Roanoke–Blacksburg Regional Airport, a United flight arriving from Washington Dulles International Airport ran off the end of the runway around 10 p.m.
Virginia State Police said the plane touched down but didn’t have enough braking distance to stop.
“It suddenly went down and it had a very hard but very late landing,” said passenger Steve Harrison. “In fact, the brakes came on just about the time they were going to hit the cross runway.”
“I was reading, and I thought, my, that was a hard bump because we kind of bounced,” said passenger Deborah Tatar. “I’ve never felt plane brakes go on so strongly before so, I thought that is not good.”
The plane continued off the pavement and onto an Engineered Materials Arresting System (EMAS), a bed of crushable cement blocks designed to quickly stop overrunning planes. No one was hurt, and all 53 passengers and crew got out safely.
The EMAS system at Roanoke–Blacksburg Regional Airport was upgraded in 2024. Airport officials told 10 News it was a $12 million investment with funding from federal, state, local, and passenger facility charge dollars. They also said the project was completed in close collaboration with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).
“So many airports have these when they can’t achieve the runway safety area via pavement,” said Alexa Briehl, Roanoke-Blacksburg Airport spokesperson. “There’s a thousand extra feet at the end of the runway. We’ve always had ours, but this new EMAS was installed in spring 2024. It performed as expected and as it should.”
The FAA says EMAS systems keep airports in compliance with national safety standards. And after more than two decades in place, this was the first time Roanoke’s EMAS at the end of runway 16-34 was used, a moment that may have saved lives.
“This could have been a major tragedy,” Tatar said. “Could’ve ended up on Peter’s Creek Road,” Harrison said.
The Roanoke-Blacksburg Airport runway is about 1,000 feet shorter than most, and heavy rain was reported Wednesday night, though it is unclear if either played a role in the incident.
Virginia State Police and the FAA are investigating the cause.