[alkonaut]

If it’s possible in any way to keep the next few km after a runway clear, then it should be clear. Ocean is great. Empty fields are great. If you are lucky enough to have empty fields but put a concrete wall there, then that’s almost malicious.

The cause of any fatality in aviation is never a single thing. It’s invariably a chain of events where removing any one thing in the chain would prevent the disaster.

[sho_hn]

Agreed. I work on a different type of vehicle with safety-critical systems for a living, and I'm naturally also very interested in the interactions between the pilots and the machine (and among themselves) and the spiral of events in the cockpit.

But that doesn't mean debating whether there's a better way to engineer typhoon-resilient localizer antenna arrays isn't also a good use of time. Safety makes it imperative to discuss all of these matters exhaustively.

Re ocean, no, that isn't so great - sea rescue is a lot more difficult to perform than on land.

[alkonaut]

Sure but if you have 3km of open water following the runway then don’t block it with a concrete wall (even if that wall prevents storm flooding 2 days every 5 years). Sea rescue is a lot easier than rescuing people who drove into a concrete wall.

[blitzar]

> If you are lucky enough to have empty fields but put a concrete wall there ...

I am fairly sure this will be one of the findings of the investigation. I hazard a guess that every sane operator of an airport in the world is walking from the end of their runway to the airfield perimeter and taking a look anyway.

[imglorp]

And if you don't have the space, there's also arresting systems you can install in case an aircraft runs long.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Engineered_materials_arrestor_...

[m463]

The wall might critical to keeping things off the runway, like animals and people.

[dredmorbius]

This one isn't. It's a relatively short support structure, not a battlement.

There are cinderblock a cinderblock wall and numerous chin-link (and razor-wire-topped) fences in the area, which do control airport access. Those would likely not have proved fatal to the aircraft to any similar extent however.

[alkonaut]

Those walls are there also on airports that do have open space beyond the runway. But they’re typically fences. Significantly cheaper and doesn’t disassemble and airliner upon impact.

[m463]

sorry, I guess I'm doing chesterton's fenc..wall