Animation of American Airlines Flt 1420 accident

This NTSB animation shows the last minute of flight for American Airlines Flight 1420, which crashed while landing at Little Rock, Arkansas on June 1, 1999. The reconstruction uses data retrieved from the Digital Flight Data Recorder and excerpts from the Cockpit Voice Recorder transcript. The animation starts with the airplane at a barometric altitude of 664 feet, an airspeed of 154 knots, a Localizer beam deviation of 0.4 DOTS to the right and 0.6 DOTS above the Glide Slope. The animation shows the airplane touching down to the right of the runway centerline and continuing to track to the right nearly reaching the right edge of the runway before changing direction to left. The remaining landing roll shows the airplane passing through the runway centerline and eventually departing the left edge of the runway just before reaching the end of the runway.

The instruments displayed represent the following (from upper right to lower left): Airspeed, Altitude, Artificial Horizon, Heading with Localizer and Glideslope Deviation, Rudder Position, Right inboard spoiler position, Derived control wheel position, Left outboard spoiler position, Thrust reverser position (unlocked or deployed), and Engine Pressure Ratio.

Disclaimer:
This reconstruction was developed using information from the flight data recorder, cockpit voice recorder, and wreckage site. Weather and visibility conditions at the time of the accident are not depicted.

Animation (c) NTSB

Category:

Autos & Vehicles

Tags:

• plane
• crash
• accident
• Little
• Rock
• AA1420
• runway
• overrun

[creede55]

its not a game, its animation made by the NTSB

[choidj]

Game? What are you smoking? It says animation!

[shaunsprogress]

My God, I'd even have aborted that landing on FSX where I don't give a shit if I crash!

[hererd5]

they should use fsx to make animations

[ab102798]

Go Around!

[oracle2world]

The captain screwed up big time here. He just HAD to land in extreme weather conditions for no compelling reason. With an approach like that, go around.

[PIlotrcm]

Well this captian didnt know is his asshole from his eblow...

why is he using left ruder in a crosswind coming from his left?

and sometimes you can only add so much to V ref that when you touch down at 160 knots, its just retarded.

[mjd4277]

There were a number of factors with this accident. The pliots were so focused on landing ASAP that they forgot to arm the automatic ground spoiler system and the auto braking system,too much reverse thrust was used,causing them to lose directional control. Also the plane was badly wrecked because the runway approach lighting system was firmly anchored to the river bank(such structures are supposed to shear off on impact)as the runway ended next to the Arkansas River.

[sid77777]

@choidj pratt.

[ferrari955]

I actually watched this episode on Air Crash Investigation and they said that if the pilot had deployed the spoilers, the plane would have slowed down faster but they forgot as you can see in the animation.

[wolf1010]

I feel horrible for saying this, I hope no one got hurt but I would love to have seen a video shot of that. Again sorry, but I've never seen an airliner slide sideways on the tarmac.

[TheSimonHarris]

@krispykreme82603 Sarcastic really? lol im glad i finally made a difference to the world!