How difficult is it to land a B-757 on a 5,300 ft runway?

Question

How difficult is it to land a B-757 on a 5,300 ft runway in the middle of mountains at an elevation of over 3,000 ft? (a.k.a. Toncontin International Airport in Honduras)

Anyone see the news today?: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080530/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/honduras_plane_crash

I saw some pictures online of an American Airlines 757 that is regularly flown into this airport and wondered how tough it is, since I am more accustomed to watching landings on an 11,000 foot rwy.

Thanks.

Answer 1

Piece o cake.

Answer 2

TGU airport in Tegucigalpa has to be one of the world's most difficult "large" airports to land at.  The problem is not the altitude, the length, or the surrounding mountains so much as the slope of that runway.  

I landed there in a 737 maybe 30 years ago a few times as an FO, and I recall that one end of the runwway is almost 100' lower than the other end. Now if the wind is calm, you can use that slope to your advantage.  But with a wind of course, either the landing or the takeoff will be a challenge!

Answer 3

pfff. w/e im sure its easier than it looks.

Answer 4

Go to this site and read Section 3 on performance, and see if you can find any conditions where the 757 can land in 5300 feet. Some of the graphs show that it might be close, but it could not take off again with anywhere enough fuel and passengers to make it feasable. (That is according to the takeoff and landing graphs from Boeing. Apparently the aircraft didn't read the charts.)

"Toncontín International Airport (IATA: TGU, ICAO: MHTG) is a civil and military airport that serves Tegucigalpa, Honduras. It is 6 km away from Tegucigalpa's center. The airport's single runway is 1,863 m (6,112 feet) in length and is at an altitude of 1,004 m (3,294 feet). Boeing 757s are the largest aircraft that can land at Toncontín, as it is one of the shortest international runways in the world."

That quote is from Wikipedia.

Answer 5

757s go in and out of Orange County all the time. That's 5700'. There's usually plenty left over. It's not that difficult. Just don't float it and you'll be OK.

Answer 6

Now, the landing distance required (LDR) to land a plane depends on:

-its weight (the heavier, the longer the roll)

-its configuration (full flaps->lower speed-->lower ground roll)

-its approach speed (as above)

-wind (a headwind reduces LDR, a tailwind will increase it: gusts and wind shear will injcrease it)

-elevation (this will affect air density: at high elev atmosp pressure is less so air density is less and this will affect engine performance)

-runway slope (upslope reduces LDR, a downslope will increase it)

-runway condition (a wet rwy will require more LDR since the breaking action will be poorer)

now i'm not sure about the weight of the 757 but under normal conditions at that airport there is sufficinet rwy to safely land (they usually arm the autobrakes and land with full flaps, backtracking the runway as necessary)..wet weather conditions may have played a role in the crash but before landing there the flight crew would certainly have calculated their LDR and they would have aborted the landing and diverted to a suitable alternate. the reason why it happened is most probably caused by pilot error when touching down: they overshooted the aiming point and by doing that they've actually eaten up that precious rwy thay had possibly because they came down too fast and/or too high..and one of the most useless things to a pilot is runway behind them..

FAA and other authorities will investigate into that but if it would have been the case, I would have probably initiated a go-around..

Answer 7

11,000 FEET?  Are you kidding me?  747 and A380's don't need that kind of runway.  Miami International Airport has one of the largest runways in the United States and thats 13,000 feet.  I've taken off on a 757 on that runway and I can tell your first hand, you are in the air well before the halfway point.