The fact is aeroplanes are supposed to take off from runways and land back on them, not charge across local scrubland.
Agreed. But let me offer a small wager. Within two years the ravine/gully at Madrid will receive some serious attention. Not necessarily filled in, or in-filled whatever they call it, but some attention. I wonder what the outcome may have been if the area through which the aircraft ran had simply been regularly ploughed - rather than rock hard flat. A poor mans EMAS.
PS. Ironically.
December 2007. Madrid Gets European Union’s First EMAS Installations. Two Engineered Material Arresting Systems (EMAS) have been installed on Runways 33L and 33R at Madrid’s main airport, Barajas International by the airport’s operator, Aeropuertos Españoles y Navegación Aérea (AENA), the first such installations of these life saving systems to be installed within the European Union. The Madrid project brings to 34 the number of EMAS systems installed at 23 airports worldwide, including two in the People’s Republic of China.