Flight International – 11 June 2019

AIR TRANSPORT

ightglobal.com 11-17 June 2019 | Flight International | 15

ITEP work to

resume after

protest fails

Defence P

U

S investigators have disclosed

that a Miami Air Boeing 737-

800 that overran at NAS Jackson-

ville, Florida, ending up in the St

Johns River, touched down almost

500m (1,640ft) along the 2,440m-

length runway after attempting to

land with a tailwind in heavy rain.

“The accident flight was part of

an operating experience trip for

the first officer that began the day

before the accident,” says a pre-

liminary report from the National

Transportation Safety Board

(NTSB) into the 3 May incident.

It says that while the captain

and first officer each had around

7,500h of total flight time, their ex-

perience in 737s differed marked-

ly, at 3,000h and 18h, respectively.

However, the report does not

indicate which pilot was flying

the aircraft at the time of the acci-

dent, or suggest a cause.

At the time of the accident,

NAS Jacksonville reported

“heavy rain and thunderstorms”,

scattered clouds at 800ft and

winds at 8kt (15km/h), gusting to

16kt, from the west-northwest.

As the 737 (N732MA) ap-

proached, operating as flight 293

from NAS Guantanamo Bay,

Cuba, controllers discussed which

INQUIRY JON HEMMERDINGER BOSTON

Miami Air 737 overran after

attempting tailwind landing

Investigators detail adverse weather conditions as narrowbody arrived at Jacksonville

MISHAP

DAVID KAMINSKI-MORROW

LONDON

A310 damaged

tyres in Yerevan

runway incident

I

ranian investigators have found

that a Mahan Air Airbus

A310-300 suffered tyre damage

in an excursion after overrunning

the displaced threshold of an

Armenian runway.

The aircraft (EP-MNV) had

been operating the W51150 ser-

vice to Yerevan from Tehran on

26 May. Owing to winds from the

northwest the jet had descended

towards runway 09 in a slight

tailwind, says the Iranian Civil

Aviation Organisation (CAO),

and was high on the approach.

Yerevan airport had shifted the

threshold of the opposite-direction

runway 27 by 1,450m (4,760ft).

This reduced the landing distance

available on runway 09 to 2,400m.

The CAO states that, as the

A310 touched down, it failed to

decelerate sufficiently and over-

ran the threshold, striking runway

lighting and damaging two tyres.

Armenian authorities assigned

the investigation to their Iranian

counterparts, it adds.

The incident bears similarities

to another Mahan Air event at

Yerevan, almost exactly four

years earlier, when an A300-

touched down short of runway

09 after following an incorrect

descent profile. ■

of Jacksonville’s runways would

be best given the meteorological

conditions. A tower controller de-

scribed both as “pretty rough” and

“pretty socked in”, says the NTSB.

Controllers initially told the pi-

lots to expect to land on runway

28, but later suggested that the op-

posite direction runway 10 would

be more appropriate.

The pilots agreed, and at 21:

one of the 737’s flightcrew report-

ed the airfield was in sight. No fur-

ther communications were made

between the pilots and control-

lers, with the next signal from the

twinjet the activation of its emer-

gency locator transmitter at 21:42.

Examination of tyre marks

showed that the aircraft contact-

ed runway 10 about 488m be-

yond its displaced threshold, and

about 6m to the right of the cen-

treline.

The aircraft returned to the

middle of the runway before drift-

ing 22m to the right again. It exit-

ed the runway at a position 18m

right of the centreline, crossed

onto grass, struck a rock embank-

ment and plunged into the St

Johns River, coming to rest in

water that was around 1.5m deep.

Its final position was about 30m

from the shoreline and 365m

beyond the end of the runway.

“The airplane was mostly in-

tact, but both main landing gears

had separated from the airplane

and were also located in the

river,” the NTSB says.

Passengers and crew evacuat-

ed and no injuries were sustained

by any of the 142 occupants. ■

All 142 occupants successfully evacuated the aircraft without injury

National Transportation Safety Board

for Stowage Bins

Shorten Aircraft Turns

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