Airports

Lateral spreading makes the runway unusable for emergency crews.

Because of the volume of traffic, large international airports use their own engineers to perform the safety evaluations within minutes following a disaster event. Large airports do not use the SAP evaluators to assess the safety of their facilities for continued use; SAP evaluators do evaluate the small, general aviation airports that are located within the community. Often, these smaller airports become key facilities for receiving and moving resources for the community or as staging areas for emergency responders and equipment.

Earthquakes cause a wide range of damage to airport facilities.

• Liquefaction or settlement renders runways.


• Seismic amplification damages controls towers.


• Because of poor support provided by glass walls in control towers, seismic amplification often damages roof structures.


• Emergency power often shuts off due to failure of batteries that are required to start generators, or failure of other support systems required to operate the generator.

Damage often is not significant enough initially to take a facility or system out of service. However, damage can become significant over time. For example, an earthquake may cause a small crack in a runway that increases or vertically separates from an aftershock.

Upon completing its assessment, the team recommends an appropriate posting, and reports the recommendation to the airport’s general manager. Also contact the person who assigned your team to assess the airport and inform them of the recommendations with as much detail as possible.

• If you recommend an UNSAFE posting, immediately contact the jurisdiction representative with your recommendation.


• If the airport does not have a general manager or someone in charge, the jurisdiction will notify the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). The FAA will issue a general broadcast indicating the airport is closed.

Airport Evaluation Form

Completing the Airport Evaluation Form