B738, Kingston Jamaica, 2009

B738, Kingston Jamaica, 2009

Summary

On 22 December 2009, the flight crew of an American Airlines Boeing 737-800 made a long landing at Kingston at night in heavy rain and with a significant tailwind component and their aircraft overran the end of the runway at speed and was destroyed beyond repair. There was no post-crash fire and no fatalities, but serious injuries were sustained by 14 of the 154 occupants. The accident was attributed almost entirely to various actions and inactions of the crew. Damage to the aircraft after the overrun was exacerbated by the absence of a RESA.

Description

On 22 December 2009, a Boeing 737-800 (N877AN) being operated by American Airlines on a scheduled passenger flight (AA331) from Miami to Kingston Jamaica ran off the eastern end of runway 12 during a night landing off an ILS approach at destination following a late touchdown in the presence of a significant tailwind component and heavy rain but with visibility still in excess of 2000 metres. The aircraft was destroyed but there was no post crash fire and no occupant or other fatalities.

The aircraft in its final resting position (reproduced from the Official Report)

Investigation

An Investigation was carried out by the Jamaican Civil Aviation Authority (JCAA) in accordance with the principles of ICAO Annex 13. The Flight Data Recorder (FDR) and 30 minute Cockpit Voice Recorder (CVR) were recovered and successfully downloaded to provide relevant data. It was noted that although the FDR recorded 1176 parameters, these did not include spoiler deployment or wheel speed. Use was also made of data from the Non Volatile Memory of some flight deck equipment. Overall, the evidence available led the Investigation to conclude that there had been “no mechanical aspect of the aircraft that contributed to the accident”.

The full content of this page is available to registered users only.
Please Log in or Register

SKYbrary Partners:

Safety knowledge contributed by: