FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Every time a plane lands, there’s an expectation it’ll stop safely, right on the runway.

But when that doesn’t happen, there’s a hidden safety system at some South Florida airports designed to prevent disaster.

“South Florida has some of the busiest airspace and aviation activity in the country,” said Michael Meyers, Manager of the FAA’s Airport Engineering Division.

With skies so busy, there’s no room for chance, so at the very end of some runways, there’s a system most people never notice called EMAS, Engineered Materials Arresting System.

“It’s ultimately to stop the plane completely, but it’s designed to slow the aircraft down at a rate such that it doesn’t create too much stress on the landing gear so that it decelerates at a steady pace,” said Meyers.

In simple terms, it’s designed to stop a plane safely, without causing more damage or injury.

Currently, about 130 airports across the country have EMAS.

That includes six airports in Florida, located in Fort Lauderdale, Key West, West Palm Beach, Venice, Stuart, and Boca Raton. At most of them, the system has been put to the test.

The most recent case was last September in Boca Raton, when a small plane overran the runway.

In that case, the EMAS system did exactly what it was designed to do. It stopped the aircraft safely and prevented it from reaching the busy roadway just feet away, Spanish River Boulevard.

Other examples have been in Key West, where EMAS has been activated multiple times.

“It’s very similar to like riding from the parking lot onto the beach, into the sand,” said Runway Safe spokesperson Trip Thomas. “So you ride around your bike on the parking, lot It’s really easy to go, and then you ride straight and even right into the sand, and all sudden it becomes very difficult. There’s a lot of drag on the wheels, and that’s exactly, essentially, what’s happening here.

“It uses Portland cement,” added Thomas. “It’s just a very lightweight, very crushable cement product.”

The product absorbs the weight of the aircraft.

It’s designed for planes weighing more than 12,500 ponds, including large business jets.

The system was created after years of deadly runway overruns across the country.

The FAA needed a solution, and instead of extending the safety zone, it was engineered, and EMAS was the answer.

When it’s activated, the damaged blocks are removed, replaced, and the runway re-opens.

It cost $13 million to install in Boca Raton, most of which was covered by the FAA.

“Airports are investing literally millions of dollars to keep their capacities open, but at the same time improving the safety that they’re providing to the flying public,” said Thomas.

“EMAS does have a perfect record of saving all lives in every single incident that has occurred involving EMAS,” said Meyers.

If you’re wondering why every airport doesn’t have this system, that’s because the FAA requires a 1,000-foot runway safety area at the end of the tarmac.

Airports that have that space don’t need EMAS.

For example, Miami International Airport, Miami Executive Airport, and North Perry Airport all have standard runway safety areas, so they do not require the system.

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