Foaming Runway

• A medical flight with a Covid-19 patient from Bagdogra in West Bengal to Mumbai made an emergency belly landing in Mumbai.
• During take-off after stopping for refueling, the wheel of the aircraft broke from its body and fell to the ground.
• Mumbai airport officials sprayed foam on the runway to stop the fire so that the Beechcraft VT-JIL aircraft could make a belly landing.

What is a foam path? A foam path is an aviation safety practice of spreading a layer of fire suppression foam on an airport runway prior to an emergency landing.

• Following a crash-landing, liquids leaking from the aircraft, which are not yet burning, start evaporating, thereby resulting in forming an air-vapour mixture that is flammable or even highly explosive.
• In such cases, extinguishing foam is used preventively and the liquid is covered with a foam carpet as a vapour barrier.
• Although originally it was thought that foam paths would prevent fires, the practice is now discouraged.

• The United States Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) recommended foam paths for emergency landings in around 1966, but withdrew that recommendation in 1987, although not barring its use.
• In 2002, a circular recommended against using pre-foaming except in certain circumstances.
• FAA stated that reliability of the information on the landing techniques to be used relating to wind and visibility conditions, pilot experience and skill, visual and radio aids available and the aircraft operational problems should be considered before using the technique.