HondaJet N20UQ suffered the type's first incident logged into the FAA’s Aviation Safety Information Analysis and Sharing (ASIAS) system when it experienced a runway excursion on Wednesday afternoon at Chicago Midway Airport (MDW). The light jet was being operated under Part 135 using the callsign Rockstar 20. The pilot and five passengers were not injured during the mishap.
After dodging thunderstorms on the flight from Philadelphia International Airport, the pilot was unable to stop the aircraft on the asphalt surface of Midway’s 6,500-foot-long Runway 31C, which was wet at the time of the incident. The airplane left the hard surface at the departure end and made deep tracks in the wet grass to the left of the engineered material arrestor system (EMAS) pad at the end of the runway. It twisted further left and then stopped just before the airport fence. The EMAS was installed after a Southwest Airlines Boeing 737 overran Runway 31C and broke through the fence, killing a child in a vehicle on the busy highway just on the other side of the airport property, in December 2005.
“The Chicago Fire Department responded to the runway excursion immediately, and reported that none of the six individuals on board was injured,” Chicago Department of Aviation media relations director Karen Pride told AIN. Heavy rain wet the runway and gusty winds were reported in the area near the time of the incident.
FlightAware shows that the aircraft was on a stabilized glideslope for most of its approach until the last 1,100 feet, when the aircraft slowed to around 107 knots and its rate of descent increased to around 1,200 feet per minute. According to the FAA preliminary report, the extent of the HondaJet's damage is still unknown.