KANSAS CITY, Mo. - The people who keep passengers safe while the plane is in the air now have help on the ground.
Officials at the Charles Wheeler Downtown Airport showed off a new safety system Wednesday that's designed to stop planes before they overshoot a runway.
The system is called "Engineered Mass Arresting System,'' or ''E-Mass.''
"What the blocks are designed to do is to arrest an airplane traveling up to 70 knots to keep the airplane from departing the runway surface,'' according to Mike Barnes, a construction supervisor on the project.
The four-by-four foot blocks are on the south end of the main runway.
A plane hits the blocks and the blocks crumble on impact.
The effect is likened to driving through sand, officials told NBC Action News.
The system is in more than 40 airports around the world.
It stopped a loaded plane last summer with minor damage to the plane and no injuries to the passengers.
