Despite Thursday’s mishap involving a plane veering off the runway at Frederick Douglass Greater Rochester International Airport, Monroe County officials say arriving and departing from Rochester’s airport is safe.

A day of plowing the runways and de-icing the planes was standard operation during the snowy weather conditions on Friday.

“Safety’s always our first priority here at the airport,” said Airport Director Andy Moore. “We have full crews out clearing the runways. We have both our runways active today.”

This comes after the main runway was shut down Thursday evening when an arriving passenger plane ended up off the runway just after touching down.

“The American Airlines plane landed just fine and while it was taxiing and making a left turn onto the taxiway from the runway is when it veered off and went into the grass,” said Moore.

Fifty passengers plus three crew members were on board. Nobody was hurt.

“This incident occurred at the farthest area of the airport. Our runway is about 1.5 miles long,” said Moore.

American Airlines issued this statement:

“After landing safely in Rochester (ROC), American Eagle flight 5811, operated by Piedmont Airlines with service from Philadelphia (PHL) to ROC, exited the taxiway while in transit to the terminal due to snowy airfield conditions.”

“All I can tell you is that we had flights arriving and departing all day beforehand with no issues,” said Moore. “There was a breaking action report from an airline that arrived about 20 minutes before that classified it as good. And as soon as we opened up the runway, because it was closed during the incident, planes were departing and landing as they normally would. Even during the incident, we had our secondary runway open and planes were departing and landing at that same time too.”

Stairs were taken out to the plane for passengers to de-board the aircraft and shuttles brought them to the terminal. The aircraft has been taken out of service for a full inspection and the FAA has a flight standards investigation open. 

“Our crews out there have decades of experience in removing snow and ice, and I can’t be more confident in their ability to make sure that the runways and taxiways are clear and safe for aircraft to depart and take off out of Rochester,” said Moore.