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Plane Goes Off Teterboro Runway - No Injuries Reported

POSTED: 10:19 pm EDT October 25, 2006

UPDATED: 10:56 pm EDT October 25, 2006

TETERBORO, N.J. -- A small jet carrying seven people went off a runway while taxiing at Teterboro Airport Wednesday night and was stopped by a safety barrier installed just last week. No one was injured, authorities said.

The plane, which had taken off from St. Louis, landed safely around 9 p.m. and was headed toward the area where passengers disembark when the unidentified pilot made the wrong turn, said Marc LaVorgna, a spokesman for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which operates the airport.

The plane then went about 10 to 15 feet off the runway, winding up on an arrestor bed that had been installed at the airport last week. Arrestor beds are made of specially designed aerated cement blocks that crumble under the weight of an aircraft in order to stop a plane safely if it overshoots a runway.

The arrestor beds were initially due to be installed at Teterboro early next year, LaVorgna said. However, officials decided to accelerate the process and had the barriers installed earlier.

Further details, including information about the plane and its owner, were not immediately available.

The barriers were ordered after two planes have skidded off runways at Teterboro last year. In the worst accident, a corporate jet carrying 11 people failed to take off on Feb. 2 and crossed six lanes of Route 46, striking cars and plowing into a warehouse. No one was killed, but 20 people were injured.

Teterboro, near New York City, handles corporate jets and many small package cargo shipments, as well as couriers for the nation's network of Federal Reserve banks. There were 193,427 takeoffs and landings there in 2005.