Baseball playoffs

estranged4life · #1 10-15-2006, 12:25 AM

if you are flying:

Jet Carrying Yankees' A-Rod Overshoots Runway

BURBANK, Calif. -- 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 the Engineered Materials Arresting System, a 200-foot-long stretch of pavement injected with air bubbles designed to collapse under the weight of an aircraft as large as a Boeing 737 jet traveling 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.

There was no indication that the jet's crew reported any problems before landing or that the runway was wet, according to Tealeye Cornejo, an NTSB air safety investigator. Investigators will look into whether the jet had already arrived and was taxing at the time of the accident or whether it overshot the runway upon landing, she said.

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.

Copyright 2006 by The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.