Washington DC - Miami - Kingston

On December 22, 2009 at 10:22 PM, Washington DC - Miami - Kingston experienced a crash involving Boeing 737-800, operated by American Airlines, with the event recorded near Kingston-Norman Manley (Palisadoes) Kingston City District.

The flight was categorized as scheduled revenue flight and the reported phase was landing (descent or approach) at a airport (less than 10 km from airport) crash site.

154 people were known to be on board, 0 fatalities were recorded, 154 survivors were identified or estimated. This corresponds to an estimated fatality rate of 0.0%.

Crew on board: 6, crew fatalities: 0, passengers on board: 148, passenger fatalities: 0, other fatalities: 0.

The listed crash cause is human factor. American Airlines Flight AA331, a Boeing 737-823 in United States registration N977AN, carrying 148 passengers, including three infants, and a crew of six, was being operated under the provisions of 14 Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) Part 121. The aircraft departed Miami (KMIA) at 20:22 Eastern Standard Time (EST) on 22 December 2009 (01:22 Universal Coordinated Time (UTC) on 23 December 2009) on an instrument flight rules (IFR) flight plan, on a scheduled flight to Norman Manley International Airport (NMIA), ICAO identifier: MKJP, Kingston, Jamaica. The aircraft landed at NMIA on runway 12 in the hours of darkness at 22:22 EST (03:22 UTC) in Instrument Meteorological Conditions (IMC) following an Instrument Landing System (ILS) approach flown using the heads up display (HUD) and becoming visual at approximately two miles from the runway. The aircraft touched down at approximately 4,100 feet on the 8,911 foot long runway in heavy rain and with a 14 knot left quartering tailwind. The crew was unable to stop the aircraft on the remaining 4,811 feet of runway and it overran the end of the runway at 62 knots ground speed. The aircraft broke through a fence, crossed above a road below the runway level and came to an abrupt stop on the sand dunes and rocks between the road and the waterline of the Caribbean Sea. There was no post-crash fire. The aircraft was destroyed, its fuselage broken into three sections, while the left landing gear collapsed. The right engine and landing gear were torn off, the left wingtip was badly damaged and the right wing fuel tanks were ruptured, leaking jet fuel onto the beach sand. One hundred and thirty four (134) passengers suffered minor or no injury, while 14 were seriously injured, though there were no life-threatening injuries. None of the flight crew and cabin crew was seriously injured, and they were able to assist the passengers during the evacuation.

Aircraft reference details include registration N977AN, MSN 29550/1019, year of manufacture 2001.