Now I know it's not a great way of stopping an aircraft, but the ravine did stop the Airbus from carrying straight on across a crowded highway.
No it didn't. As has been pointed out before on this thread, the highway runs almost parallel to the runway. The extended centreline of the runway does not intersect the highway until about 1km away. No over-running airliner is going to plough on that far. (
Overhead picture )