Due to inclement weather conditions, an airliner attempting a
landing at Toronto Pearson Airport's Runway 24L in August of
2005, rolled past the end of the runway, tumbled down an unpaved
area, and abruptly came to rest in a ravine. As a result of its
investigation into incidents such as this, in 2007, the
Transportation Safety Board of Canada (TSB) recommended that all
Code 4 runways have a 300-meter runway end safety area (RESA) or a
means of stopping aircraft that provides an equivalent level of
safety.
RESAs are compact, level and obstacle-free areas located beyond
each end of a runway. At the time of the 2005 incident, Runway 24L
was compliant with the requirements of Transport Canada Aviation
(TCA) by virtue of a 60-meter strip located beyond the end of the
runway. However, this minima was lower than the International Civil
Aviation Organization's (ICAO) standard of 150 meters. TCA and
the TSB subsequently exchanged responses and comments to the
recommendation, which included, among other things, discussions on
various regulatory approaches and cost-benefit analyses.
In March of 2020, after much consultation, TCA published proposed
amendments to the Canadian Aviation Regulations (CARs) to address,
among other things, the requirement for RESAs. TSB
acknowledged that the proposed amendments focused only on the risk
to a majority of, but not all, passengers and do not consider
non-passenger air traffic or the terrain at the end of all runways.
Also, TSB noted that the proposed amendments may not fully meet the
ICAO standard, which requires a 150 m RESA for all runways 1200 m
in length and longer, and provisions for other types of
runways.
As a result of further consultations, on January 5, 2022, the
amendments to the CARs came into effect with some variation from
that which was proposed in 2020. The amendments require certain
Canadian-certified aerodromes to (i) increase the size of the
safety area outside the runway to a minimum length of 150 m at the
ends of runways that serve scheduled commercial passenger-carrying
flights, (ii) adjust the runway's declared distances, (iii)
install an Engineered Material Arresting System or (iv) use a
combination of increasing the runway safety area outside the runway
and adjusting the runway's declared distances. Canadian
airports with an annual passenger threshold of at least 325 000 for
two consecutive years will be subject to the amendments. Upon
meeting the required threshold, airport operators must then comply
with the amendments within three (3) years.
Time will tell if these amendments will go the distance!
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