The Plane Truth: American Airlines’ Runway Super Muddle

Miracle on the Jamrock

Thank God, Praises to Allah, Tank yu Jah Jah! The AA overshot the runway, did not brake except for the break in the fence, and like a few politician, switched and landed on the opposite side of the road. Immediately, the image of a vehicle skidding off the asphalt conjures up thoughts of membership in another AA but let the ideas brew as we distill the details. Good news, just three weeks short of the anniversary of US Airways “Miracle on the Hudson” landing on January 15 2008.

My Near Miss

This is a story which is particularly close to me because the aircraft came down at a place that I was scheduled to pass, on my way to Morgan’s Harbour Hotel in Port Royal, where I was to join my RJR 94FM colleagues on an outside broadcast. Were it not for my tardiness and lethargy, my punctuality would have given me a first hand, high-definition, full impact account of the crash. At a minimum, I would have been stranded on the other side of the Port Royal Road for several hours. Start with the good news. With the exception of a few millilitres of body fluids and couple kilograms of fright-generated waste, nothing was lost. No fatalities! Call this not the miracle on the Hudson, but a miracle on another Rock. Jamrock!

Plane Specifications

Boeing 737-800s land and take off on the average at a ground speed of 250 kilometres (140 miles) per hour. This assumes a relatively full craft with some 150 passengers. Imagine the force of such an object weighing more than 60,000 kilograms.or around 132,000 pounds. Compare this to a motor car such as Usain Bolt’s crashed BMW M3 which tips the scale at a mere 1,400 kilos. An aircraft of that size and mass slamming into anything, including the sea, could easily mean its disintegration. Just imagine even being in a building just 18 feet off the ground on the second floor, falling. How come nobody died?

Early Reports

Reports are still preliminary; and your guess is as good as mine. Actually no! I was on the scene before the Ministers of Transport, Security and Information. Even the two former ‘shadow’ ministers were there in the dark, trying to get a first hand view. Here are the facts. It all started with flight American Airlines 331 leaving Washington DC via Miami and it ended with a few bumps off Runway 30 at the Norman Manley International Airport (NMIA) on the old Palisadoes Peninsula.

Missed Landing

This craft, carrying 152 passengers, heading for sun and sea, appeared to land much too fast and took them to the beach much earlier than they expected. Three more metres from the nose takes you into water. The cause of the crash is not known and I reserve my judgement if not the pilot’s. However, one gets the impression that our neighbours to the north are struggling to find something peculiar about Jamaica that might have contributed significantly to the incident. American Airlines pilots, with hundreds of winter flights per year, in snow, sleet almost no visibility and ice, should not be overly daunted by tropical rain. Sometimes snowy landings are so common that they remind us that America is a White country. Okay! The flight landed at night in a Black country.

Requirements for Safe Landing

In order to have a safe landing 737-800s require up to 2,000 metres (7,000 feet) of asphalted runway, but can easily come to a halt in less. I took a first hand view of a few such planes touching down since Wednesday and saw so much runway left, we could divest part of it along with the national airline that the government is inexplicably refusing to sell to our pilots. For the record, Runway 30 has another 700 metres (2,000 feet) and our Air Jamaica pilots regularly land Airbus 320, essentially the same craft, on it. British Airways and Virgin pilots routinely land the bigger Boeing 747 in all kinds of conditions on the same ‘tiny’ unlit runway. Of course, if a pilot wants to make maximum use of the runway he has to avoid leaving half of it untouched, no matter how much he wants to evade contact with a black surface.

Tail Wind

Furthermore, one should always be mindful of the wind. In flight school student pilots are taught “never land with a tail wind.” However, in craft such as these airplanes, there is a maximum allowable trailing wind of 10 knots in most cases. Check the wind speed and direction at 10:00 pm on Tuesday December 22 from the Met Office or Air Traffic Information Service. 'Twas an ill wind that blew no good!

Rain

Nonetheless, we know that it was raining steadily. Some of the American reports give the impression that it was a major inundation, especially since two adults and a child had drowned hours earlier in Portland. Well let’s just get this straight! It rained continually for four days-meaning that it was not consistent. It was a deluge but do not self-delude into thinking that it was an impossible situation. In any event, Air Jamaica flight JM62 had landed in similar conditions just half an hour earlier. Furthermore, the tragedy in Portland, 50 miles away, is more the result of incomplete road work and not just the weather.

Missing Approach Lights

Never mind the accurate report from BusinessWeek magazine on Thursday that a 400-metre stretch of white lights over the sea was non-functioning for the last month. That is not a requirement; it merely assists pilots who, in any event, should be using their instruments. Notwithstanding that, they are obliged to have sight of the runway at least 200 feet above ground. If not; circle, next runway or next airport.

Inadequate Emergency Provision

Still, our post-crash response like King Belshazzar, was weighed and found wanting.
The Airport Authorities reported that they responded within 120 seconds. Passengers’ estimates are between 15 and 25 minutes. The truth lies somewhere in between and is perhaps mitigated by the speedy rescue by a father of one of the passengers and a 'sheroic'driver of a Jamaica Urban Transit Company (JUTC)bus, who were just in the vicinity.

But, we did not have enough ambulances, fire trucks or medical personnel. Clearly, the enviable safety record of the Jamaican air transport system might have contributed to this complacency but it is no excuse. Imagine if the plane had exploded or many were critically injured. This must be a wake up call.

Air J to the World

Alas, travellers have found a new enthusiasm for Air Jamaica and its competent flight crew and don’t want it sold. With many passengers now scared of AA it should mean a tail windfall for Air J. But no. Any loss of the guaranteed number of seats to AA means that Jamaica’s government must pay it US$4.5 million, in a curious deal negotiated with Tourism Minister Ed ‘Boughtless.’ Guess what, the Air J CEO who closed down two Air J routes in the USA is the husband of an AA executive. He was employed to rivals before, worked with Air J, left for the competition and then came back to the not-so-fatted calf.

No explosion, but lots of smoke and more fire.