American Airlines Flight 331

The museum locomotive, 2005 in Miami

American Airlines Flight 331 was an international scheduled flight from Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport in Washington, DC in the United States to Kingston in Jamaica with a stopover in Miami, which overshot the runway while landing at the airport of the Jamaican capital, the fence of the airport broke and eventually fell apart. On board the plane were 148 passengers and six crew members.

Among the factors that led to the accident included the high speed of the aircraft during the landing and the touchdown point of the aircraft at half the length of the runway. A Boeing 747 of Virgin Atlantic landed shortly before the flight 331 under similar weather conditions without any problems.

Aircraft

The crashed plane was a Boeing 737-823 with the single aircraft N977AN. The serial number of the aircraft was the 29550th It made its first flight on 30 November 2001. Was delivered on 20 December 2001 at American Airlines.

Course

Of Washington, D.C. with a stopover in Miami upcoming Boeing 737-800 arrived at the landing at 22:22 local time clock ( clock 03:22 UTC on 23 December) on the runway 12 to slide over and shot the end of the runway, broke through the perimeter fence of the airport, crossed a road and came to the beach past the airport to a standstill.

On the landing was heavy rain. After the accident, a special METAR was issued out of sequence.

A wing and an engine were torn from the fuselage. This broke in half before and behind the wings. The chassis does not withstood the strain and gave way, so that the body fell to the ground. The forward motion of the aircraft had this break through the fence of the airport and rush to the lower-lying road before it came to a halt on the beach of the outer harbor of Kingston and the open Caribbean Sea. The aircraft suffered a total loss.

Follow

Of the 148 passengers and 6 crew members on board 44 were injured, four of them seriously.

The airport was closed after the accident, which led to individual flight cancellations. Later, the runway was opened with a shortened length, because the torn tail section of the aircraft blocked the runway. Larger aircraft were diverted for two days at the Sangster International Airport in Montego Bay.

Investigation of the incident

After the accident, an investigation involving the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board and the Jamaica Civil Aviation Authority. American Airlines also entschickte delegation to support the investigation.

There were reports that some lights of the runway lighting were not working at the time of the accident. Jamaican officials played the influence of the non-functioning lights down to the accident, pointing out that approaching crews were informed and that the runway was properly lit at the time of the accident. The investments of the instrument landing system were checked after the accident during a test flight, and no malfunctions were detected.

Later published reports revealed that the crew had contacted the Jamaican approach control to request a landing using the Instrument Landing System. This required an approach on runway 12 The approach control, however, dismissed the crew indicated that during a landing in this direction could be expected with a tailwind and recommended a landing in the opposite direction, ie on runway 30, the crew of American Airlines reiterated its request for a landing on runway 12 and then received permission to land on this runway, the air traffic controller, the Department indicated that the runway was wet. A mechanical failure on the aircraft as the reason for the accident was excluded.

The Director of the Civil Aviation Authority of Jamaica, Oscar Derby, presented in of the week after the accident that the plane landed until about the middle of the 2,710 m long runway. Among the factors examined were therefore tailwind and the wet runway condition. This was not draining rainwater notches provided, as are common at major airports. The aircraft was quite difficult, because it still had enough fuel on board to complete the flight back to the United States can.

The analysis of the flight data recorder ( FDR) later revealed that the aircraft touched down after about 1250 m of the 2710 m long runway. The normal touchdown point would have been between 300 and 500 m after the start of the runway. The aircraft had when it reached the end of the runway, nor a speed of 116 km / h The tailwind on landing was 26 km / h and was thus just in the limit of 27 km / h, which are approved for the aircraft type.

After the accident, was also announced that American Airlines ' landing procedures for a review by the Federal Aviation Administration were subjected to because of the company's aircraft were involved within two weeks in three incidents; in the other two cases were the wing tips of the aircraft with the landing floor.