BRUSSELS, Belgium – An international pilots’ association responded to the deadly jetliner crash in Brazil by urging cramped urban airports worldwide to install braking systems of soft cement to prevent tragedies when planes overshoot runways.

The statement from the International Federation of Air Line Pilots’ Associations recognized that older airports in built-up areas do not have the space to provide for long safety strips at the ends of runways.

The “tragic accident at Sao Paulo Congonhas Airport demonstrates once again the need for Runway End Safety Areas,” a statement from the pilots’ group said.

The Britain-based association, which represents 105,000 commercial pilots worldwide, has been lobbying for years for airports to be equipped with at least one 1,000-foot runway overrun area.

Where that is not possible because of a lack of space, the group said airports should install soft cement beds known as Engineered Materials Arrestor Systems. They are designed to slow down planes, much as escape ramps filled with pebbles or sand on hilly highways can stop runaway trucks, the association said.

“There’s some places you can’t get the 300-meter RESA, we recognize that,” spokesman Gideon Ewers said, referring to the recommended 1,000-foot-long Runway End Safety Areas backed by the pilots’ association.

“The arrestor bed is an alternative that would provide the same level of safety,” Ewers said.

The soft cement beds are strong enough to support airport emergency vehicles, but disintegrate into tiny fragments when a heavy aircraft runs over them, thus acting as a brake.

A similar arrestor system has prevented several planes from ending up in the bay adjacent to New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport, Ewers said.

Critics have called the 6,362-foot runway at Sao Paulo’s Congonhas airport dangerously short. New York’s LaGuardia Airport, by contrast, has a 7,003-foot runway.

The Brazilian airliner burst into flames Tuesday after trying to land on a short, rain-slicked runway in Sao Paulo. The pilot had apparently tried to take off again, barely clearing a highway before crashing. All aboard died.

“This is a worldwide problem with thousands of runways used in airline operations failing to comply with the recommendations set out by the International Civil Aviation Organization,” the statement from the pilots’ association said in recommending longer safety strips and arrestor systems.

Overshooting runways is common in aviation, with an average of one each week. The vast majority end without injury or damage, but in recent years there have been a number of serious accidents.

In March, 21 people died when a jetliner failed to stop on the runway in Yogyakarta, Indonesia, plunging into a rice paddy and catching fire. And in 2005, a jetliner shot off the runway in Toronto, skidded some 600 feet, hit a ravine and burst into flames. Remarkably, none of the 309 people aboard were killed.

A service of the Associated Press(AP)