American Airlines Plane Crash in Kingston, Under Investigation

Please see our previous post, here, for a background to this post.

Technical staff from American Airlines, Boeing, the National Transport Authority (Jamaica), the Civil Aviation Authority (Jamaica), the National Transportation Safety Board (USA) have begun investigations into the American Airlines crash that occurred last night at the Norman Manley International Airport in Kingston, Jamaica.

The voice data recorder (black box) should have been sent overseas, this afternoon, for investigators to listen to events leading up to the crash and following the crash.

The area surrounding the crash has been cordoned off, with police and soldiers keeping diligent watch to ensure that the crash site is not tampered with.

Only aircraft that are smaller than 737 aircraft are being allowed to land at the  Norman Manley International airport, due to the fact that the tail of the crashed American Airlines plane, will block the flight path of larger planes..

...As such, larger aircraft (like those belonging to Virgin Airlines and British Airways) are being diverted to the Sangster International Airport in Montego Bay, Jamaica.

The entire aircraft will be taken to the USA (at a date to be announced) for further investigation.

Please see pictures, below, of the crashed plane, from rastariza on Flickr.com:

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This picture shows the detached right engine of the airplane. 

This picture shows one of the doors, open, through which some passengers escaped the wreckage. 

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In response to concerns raised by some passengers re the tardiness of Jamaican emergency response crew in responding to the crash, Jamaican Minister of Transportation and Works, Mr. Mike Henry says that emergency crews responded within the required 3 of 4 minutes, outside the perimeter fence of airport. (International best practices dictate a response time of minutes outside the perimeter fence of the airport).

Just an update to what we previously reported, 148 passengers including 6 crew members were on flight AA331.

92 persons were hurt, 7 seriously hurt, with a majority of injured passengers sent to two (2) major hospitals in Kingston: the Kingston Public Hospital and the University Hospital of the West Indies...6 or 7 each were sent to the Medical Associates Hospital and the Andrews Memorial Hospital.

Most passengers have since been treated and released. Minister of Information, Daryl Vaz, reported that their injuries included lacerations, blunt trauma and broken bones.

He also announced that a hot-line has been set up in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for relatives, friends and Consulates who need updated information on passengers on the airplane.

These are:

876-501-9522

876-836-5900.

American Airlines staff will be among those manning the hot-line.

(I would like to thank rastariza for the use of his Flickr photos of the crashed American Airlines plane. The inset photo shows where the airplane split in two places - as it's supposed to, in a crash).

Gillian

Sources Include

1) CVM Television's News Programme, "Evening Watch", at 8:00 p.m., December 23,2009

2) Television Jamaica's Evening News at 7:00 p.m., December 23,2009

3) Nationwide Radio's Evening Programme, "Cover Story", at 5:30 p.m.,December 23,2009

4) Power 106 FM's News at  5:00 p.m., December 23,2009