EMAS – Engineered Material Arresting System
I was listening to the tower at JFK and pulled up the airport diagram to follow along. I noticed the notation EMAS and 392 × 226 at the approach end of Rwy 22L.
The Google Maps image below shows what it looks like from the air.
It turns out that there are many airports that do not have a Runway Safety Area overrun of 1,000’ available and some of them use an engineered concrete overrun to slow planes that would otherwise overrun the end of the runway. The details are in this FAA document.
The picture below is the EMAS at Greenville, SC that stopped a Mystere Falcon 900 airplane that ran off the runway in July 2006.
The picture looks like it was taken from slightly above pattern altitude and the texture is not nearly as visible as the EMAS at JFK. Chevrons on the runway mean don’t land on that part of the runway. If you are ever tempted to land on the chevrons because you think that the chevrons just mean that the runway won’t support the weight of the big guys and it will be fine for your little 172, you could be in for a surprise.
Our local airport is one of the first to get an EMAS installed. An article about the rationale and process is here.