Plane from D.C. overshoots runway in Jamaica; dozens injured

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Wednesday, December 23, 2009; 1:04 PM
A team of U.S. air safety investigators is flying to Jamaica to help officials there determine how an American Airlines jetliner ended up on a beach after careening off the end of a Kingston runway Tuesday night.
Flight 331 left Reagan National Airport at 8:22 p.m., stopped at
Miami International, then headed into Kingston's Norman Manley Airport about 10 p.m. The airplane, a Boeing 737-800, carried 160 people. American
Airlines said there were no fatalities.
Three passengers remained hospitalized Wednesday morning with injuries described as not life-threatening, according to Tim Wagoner, an American Airlines
spokesman. Dozens of other passengers were treated for injuries before being released, including members of the six-person flight crew, officials said.
The U.S. team will include five National Transportation Safety Board aviation
specialists as well as technical advisers from the Federal Aviation
Administration, American Airlines, Boeing and GE Aircraft Engines. In a brief update, the NTSB said the American Airlines plane "overshot
the end of the runway while landing in heavy rain, crossed a road and stopped on a beach."
There was no immediate cause cited for the incident. Aviation safety analysts say crash investigators might focus on the weather, the condition of the
runway, as well as the decisions made by pilots and air traffic controllers. Investigators will also examine whether any mechanical failures on the plane
contributed to the accident.
It "looks like there were several weather-related issues: very heavy rain, poor visibility and a tail wind," said Henry Margusity, a meteorologist at Accuweather.com.
Margusity said there could have been layers of water on the surface of the runway causing the plane to hydroplane.
"It was almost like being on ice," he said. "The passengers were basically along for the ride."
Wagoner said the jet's two engines separated, the tip of the left wing was broken off and the plane's main landing gear collapsed. He said the airplane's fuselage was cracked but intact, contradicting earlier reports that said the fuselage broke into two pieces.
"The aircraft didn't get stopped," Wagner said. "We don't know why yet."
Runway accidents are a major aviation safety concern. In the 14 years prior to 2008, there were 431 runway-related accidents involving commercial transport aircraft, about 30 percent of all the accidents in that time, according to the nonprofit Flight Safety Foundation. Accidents in that period designated as runway excursions -- when an aircraft departs the end or side of the runway surface -- have accounted for 712 fatalities in the same 14-year period.
The Jamaica Observer reported on its Web site that about 40 people were injured and taken to a hospital in Kingston, the capital. While not confirming the figure, an airline spokesman said that as of 2:35 a.m. Wednesday none of the injuries was critical.
Kathy Estrada of Orlando said her sister, Natalie Hendricks of Annapolis, was on the plane and reported "mass chaos."
Hendricks told her sister that the twin jet plane "just slid off the runway," Estrada said in a telephone interview early Wednesday. "It went through a fence, over a road and ended on the beach," Estrada said.
Hendricks told her sister that some of the injuries were no more than bumps, bruises and cuts. However, some passengers appeared to have "pretty bad injuries," Estrada said.
Hendricks, 36, was fine, her sister said. However, Hendricks's husband, Ian, received "some bumps and bruises on his head and legs," Estrada said.
The two were able to help some of the other passengers off the plane, Estrada said. In the immediate aftermath, Estrada said, quoting her sister, "there was nobody there to help them." Then she said a bus passed by and some of the injured were placed aboard it. Emergency vehicles later arrived.
Passenger Pilar Abaurrea told the Associated Press that the entire flight was very turbulent, with the crew being forced to halt the beverage service three times before finally giving it up. Just before landing the pilot warned of more turbulence but said it likely wouldn't be much worse than what they had experienced so far, she said.
It was not immediately known how many of the passengers who boarded at National Airport remained on the flight after it stopped in Miami. Jamaican Information Minister Daryl Vaz told the Associated Press that most passengers were Jamaicans returning for Christmas.
An airline spokeswoman said every seat on the plane was taken. Seats on planes departing from Washington have been at a premium since the recent record snowstorm severely disrupted airport operations, canceling many flights.
The airline said it had set up a special hot line for use by relatives of passengers. The number is 800-245-0999, the airline said.



