on the night of june 1 1999 american 1420 is running late leaving dallas for little rock with the crew looking at running out of hours insist on another plane to do the flight the md-80 is running late but is able to leave dallas but the crew are also nervous about the weather which is common in this time of the year in that part of america the delay also puts the crew under stress. passengers are rushed onboard 139 people are on the flight that night and they know they will be rushing to get there before the weather. the stroms though already moving towards little rock 30 minutes to little rock. the crew thinks its okay at that point. the crew are captain bushman and fo origeal they are relaxed at this point. the crew are told about a bowling alley type thunderstorm and spot lightning out the window but it is clear at the airport at this point but could hit during the approach. the crew don’t know that the bowling alley is closing in 80 miles the weahter isn’t effecting little rock yet they tell the passengers about the storm calling it a light show. the crew are aware of the bad weather the crew make their first contact with little rock atc which start telling them about the weather with the winds near the limit for a dry runway (the runway is clearly wet and needs a lower wind speed). the crew calculate and think they are within limits which is not the case. the radar at little rock is not that good the crew are asked to approach runway 22l as they can barely make out the runway but are confident that its a bit further off the rain but within minutes the situation gets worse as they get a windshear alert which indicates the wind is changed direction and is one of the worse parts of a storm they now need to land on runway 4r (the opposite direction) its a good move normally but will delay landing and loses track of the storm. the crew are very busy now as they are overwelmed by the storm and the approach. the captain has trouble seeing the runway and they want to do a visual approach but its impossible so they switch to an ils approach they tell atc. the plane is being jolted around pretty heavily by the storm. the crew face another problem the rvr (runway viusla range) is barely within limits 3000 feet (the limit is 2400 feet). the crew attempt to land regardless even though the passengers are scared they could divert to another airport or return to dallas but refuse to and there is another windshield alert. the crew are struggling to line up with the runway as the passengers are rigid. the plane touches down but almost immedately starts sliding and doesn’t slow down and overruns the runway and hits a steel walkway and catches fire but most people get out alive and one even calls 911 to get help. in the end 10 passengers and the captain are killed in the crash (there are reports that 2 of the 10 died in hospital and a possible 12th death but i can’t confirm). ntsb lead by greg feith is the lead investigator. the investigation determines the plane lost control after landing but not much else was found the runway. the survivers report that the spoilers might not have been activated which is confirmed using the cvr and fdr which meant they could have never stopped (although they might not have been safe anyway). the crew didn’t try and arm it due to the rush due to the storm. the investigation conisders the weather also had a roll due to the stress as the crosswinds where way over limits and they had to fight the winds on landing. the crew should have aborted the approach and the fo says he told the captain to but didn’t and there is no evidnece of that on the cvr leading to a controversal finding. american try and blame the controller but there is no real reason to. lawyers wanted american to take the blame with the pilots. the first officers evidence doesn’t go well. american tells the ntsb that they can’t operate in storms which is not the true policy. the issue of landing in storms is a big problem and that it is widespread. the cause was both due to pilot error from landing in a storm and not arming the spoilers.
next time a slow decent when on fire leads to a electric failure.
Harrison’s world 