Due to inclement weather conditions, an airliner attempting a landing at Toronto Pearson Airport's Runway 24L in August of 2005, rolled past the end of the runway, tumbled down an unpaved area, and abruptly came to rest in a ravine. As a result of its investigation into incidents such as this, in 2007, the Transportation Safety Board of Canada (TSB) recommended that all Code 4 runways have a 300-meter runway end safety area (RESA) or a means of stopping aircraft that provides an equivalent level of safety.
 
RESAs are compact, level and obstacle-free areas located beyond each end of a runway. At the time of the 2005 incident, Runway 24L was compliant with the requirements of Transport Canada Aviation (TCA) by virtue of a 60-meter strip located beyond the end of the runway. However, this minima was lower than the International Civil Aviation Organization's (ICAO) standard of 150 meters. TCA and the TSB subsequently exchanged responses and comments to the recommendation, which included, among other things, discussions on various regulatory approaches and cost-benefit analyses.
 
In March of 2020, after much consultation, TCA published proposed amendments to the Canadian Aviation Regulations (CARs) to address, among other things, the requirement for RESAs.  TSB acknowledged that the proposed amendments focused only on the risk to a majority of, but not all, passengers and do not consider non-passenger air traffic or the terrain at the end of all runways. Also, TSB noted that the proposed amendments may not fully meet the ICAO standard, which requires a 150 m RESA for all runways 1200 m in length and longer, and provisions for other types of runways.
 
As a result of further consultations, on January 5, 2022, the amendments to the CARs came into effect with some variation from that which was proposed in 2020. The amendments require certain Canadian-certified aerodromes to (i) increase the size of the safety area outside the runway to a minimum length of 150 m at the ends of runways that serve scheduled commercial passenger-carrying flights, (ii) adjust the runway's declared distances, (iii) install an Engineered Material Arresting System or (iv) use a combination of increasing the runway safety area outside the runway and adjusting the runway's declared distances. Canadian airports with an annual passenger threshold of at least 325 000 for two consecutive years will be subject to the amendments. Upon meeting the required threshold, airport operators must then comply with the amendments within three (3) years. 
 
Time will tell if these amendments will go the distance!

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