From Caribbean360

KINGSTON, Jamaica, Wednesday May 7, 2014, CMC – Five years after an American Airlines jet ran off the runway at the Norman Manley International Airport, the final report on the investigation into the incident has been released.

In the report, the Jamaica Civil Aviation Authority (JCAA) stated that the incident could have been avoided, if the crew aboard American Airlines flight 331 took certain precautions.

Just under 150 passengers were injured on December 22, 2009 when American Airlines Flight 331, flying from Miami to Kingston, overshot the runway at the Norman Manley International Airport and came to a stop inches from the Caribbean sea just off the Port Royal main road.

The report, released on Tuesday has documented a wide range of issues that contributed to the crash on the night of December 22, 2009.

It noted “While the crew of American Airlines flight 331 was very experienced, they did not sufficiently apprise themselves of safety procedures in approaching and landing given the weather conditions on December 22, 2009.”

According to the report, although there was heavy rain in Kingston on that night, resulting in a wet runway – the First Officer, in his statement, said he did not recall the weather conditions on the Automatic Terminal Information Service (A.T.I.S.)

The report also said the flight crew selected to land on runway 12 despite being informed by the Tower Controller about the unfavourable wind direction and strength.

It stated that there was no evidence that the flight crew requested or received a report on the condition of runway 12 or braking action during the approach, until less than 5 minutes before landing.

The Authority concluded that the crew’s lack of concern about the hazards of tailwind landing may have been due to lack of training by American Airlines regarding such landings.

The JCAA said, “had the crew been familiar with such hazards they may not have tried to land on runway 12 and the accident might have been avoided.”

The resulting action led to the aircraft over-running runway 12, breaking through a fence and coming to a stop on the sand dunes and rocks between the road and waterline of the Caribbean Sea.

The impact of the crash rendered the aircraft inoperable.

Meanwhile, JCAA, listed several inadequacies on the part of officials at the Norman Manley International Airport.

The authority found that Air Traffic Controllers did not offer the flight the opportunity to use runway 30, which was in a better condition than runway 12.

The Authority also said neither airport officials or Air Traffic Controllers had specific procedures for conducting runway condition inspections during inclement weather and disseminating this information to approaching planes.

Investigations also revealed that runways 12 and 30 at NMIA did not have an embedded centre line or touchdown zone lighting and the painted runway markings did not contain enough reflective material.

The NMIA also did not perform a runway surface condition inspection before flight AA-331 landed nor was this part of their procedures.

The investigation also found that there was no runway end safety area at the end of runway 12.

The JCAA said its investigation indicated that there were gaps in the management of and operational control of American Airlines, specifically runway condition reporting and flight crews following recommended procedures.

The JCAA now requires Air Traffic Controllers to be stricter in assigning runways, based on wind considerations and give pilots less options for landing when there’s a tail wind.

For more on this story go to: http://www.caribbean360.com/news/american-airlines-crash-landing-could-have-been-avoided-report#ixzz312w5Bhqk