Jet carrying A-Rod overruns runway
BURBANK, Calif. (AP) - A private jet, carrying Yankees third baseman Alex Rodriguez and six others, overran a runway at Bob Hope Airport on Friday and was brought to a halt by an arresting system.
"I spoke to Alex. He's fine," agent Scott Boras said.
None of the seven people aboard were injured, federal officials said.
The Gulfstream G-II carried five passengers and two crew members, the National Transportation Safety Board said in a statement from Washington, D.C.
The twin-engine jet was stopped by an Engineered Materials Arresting System, pavement injected with air bubbles designed to collapse under the weight of an aircraft as large as a Boeing 737 jet travelling as fast as 50 knots, airport spokesman Victor Gill said.
"It came to a pretty quick stop," Gill said.
Damage to the aircraft was minor, the board said.
An NTSB official was sent to investigate the 11:35 a.m. incident. The board planned to retrieve the cockpit voice recorder, gather radar data and evaluate how well the arresting system worked.
The aircraft, registered to a Wilmington, Del., corporation, approached from the west and landed on one of the airport's two runways. The runway was closed and reopened at 3:30 p.m. after the plane was moved, Gill said.
Bob Hope Airport, in the San Fernando Valley north of downtown Los Angeles, is used by seven airlines and private aircraft.
A Southwest Airlines jet skidded off a runway and crashed through a concrete barrier at the airport in 2000, injuring 43 passengers and the captain. The flight from Las Vegas went too fast and descended at a steep angle when it landed, according to a NTSB report. That jet ended up on a city street near a gas station.
Friday's incident came just two days after Yankees pitcher Cory Lidle's plane failed to execute a U-turn and slammed into the side of a high-rise in Manhattan, killing Lidle and his flight instructor.
