Info about the crash below, I also happened to film a Ryanair 738 (Same as the American) overshooting the taxiway at Glasgow, soory for the bad quality
Dozens of the 154 people on board the Boeing 737-800 suffered injuries when it landed in heavy rain at Kingston's Norman Manley International Airport, bounced across the tarmac and stopped close to the Caribbean Sea.
The Canadian High Commission in Kingston confirmed that three Canadians were on board the flight but not injured, said Foreign Affairs spokesperson Dana Cryderman.
The identities of the Canadian passengers are not yet known.
The plane attempted to land at approximately 10:25 p.m., Jamaican Information Minister Daryl Vaz told CTV News Channel.
The impact cracked the plane's fuselage, broke off both engines and crushed the left landing gear of the aircraft, said American Airlines spokesperson Tim Smith.
Airline industry analyst and former U.S. National Transportation Safety Board member Vernon Gross said the fact the plane broke apart likely saved passengers from serious injury.
"The airplane when it breaks apart uses energy, which would otherwise be used on the passengers. So it's wonderful in one sense that the engines came off, the wings came off and the fuselage cracked open," Gross told CTV News Channel Wednesday afternoon in an interview from Washington. "The bad thing was that it was raining so severely that a lot of folks had trouble getting over the fuselage."
According to Gross, the airport in Kingston does not have the usual 305-metre overrun at the end of its runway, which could have helped slow the plane down.
The plane came to rest between three and five metres from the Caribbean Sea and passengers walked across a beach to be evacuated by bus, passenger Robert Mais told The Gleaner, a Jamaican newspaper.
The plane had left Miami International Airport about 90 minutes before.
Early reports said that the plane carried 148 passengers and six crew members. Vaz, however, told CTV News Channel that Flight 331 carried only 145 passengers.
Vaz said 91 people have sought medical treatment since the ill-fated landing yesterday evening. Reports from government officials and airport workers said 44 people were taken to hospital with broken bones and back pains.
Paul Hall, the senior vice-president of airport operations, said four people were seriously injured.
The incident closed the Kingston airport for the rest of the evening. The airport reopened at about 6:30 a.m. on Wednesday, said Vaz.
Security Minister Dwight Nelson told Radio Jamaica some 400 passengers waited for their flights to be cleared for takeoff.
New Hampshire resident Pilar Abaurrea said panic ensued once the landing went bad.
"All of a sudden, when it hit the ground, the plane was kind of bouncing, someone said the plane was skidding and there was panic," Abaurrea of Keene, New Hampshire, said in a telephone interview with The Associated Press.
The 62-year-old Abaurrea said the flight was very turbulent, to the point where the crew had to halt beverage service on three occasions. Shortly before landing, the pilot had warned of additional turbulence, she said.
Natalie Morales Hendricks said the plane began to skid upon landing and "before I knew it, everything was black and we were crashing."
"Everybody's overhead baggage started to fall. Literally, it was like being in a car accident. People were screaming, I was screaming," she told NBC's "Today" show.
"There was smoke and debris everywhere," after the plane halted, she said. "It was a mess. Everybody could smell jet fuel."
Smith, the airline spokesperson, said U.S. investigators will now analyze whether the plane should have been landing in such bad weather.
"That's obviously one of the things they will look at," he said, adding that other planes landed safely amid heavy rain.
Radio Jamaica reporter Kirk Abrahams told CTV's Canada AM that "local and international investigations" were underway as of Wednesday morning.
Six U.S. National Transportation Safety Board investigators were headed to Jamaica on Wednesday morning to assist a probe led by the island's government, said spokesperson Keith Holloway.
According to former NTSB member Vernon Gross, investigators will want to answer a number of questions, such as if the airplane landed early enough on the runway, if the rain made the runway slippery, or if the aircraft's braking system failed.
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Exreme landing 5 - overrunby Captainmaevius15,306 views
haters gonna hate
RealPilotFSX 1 week ago
That's not a Boeing 737.
TimeGents 10 months ago
dude there alot of damage and i should know i saw the acceident as it happened
rsx521 2 years ago
This is really sad...AA hunu need fi step up hunu game. PPL safety comes 1st!!!
shottayouth3 2 years ago
airliners MUST cancel flights during very bad rain or any weather looking bad, and THAT is safer THAN the aircraft itself
Necrommancer 2 years ago