An American Airlines flight from Miami with more than 150 aboard overshot a runway while landing during a heavy rainstorm in Kingston Tuesday night, injuring more than 40 people, officials said.
Flight 331 took off from Miami International Airport in the evening arriving at Norman Manley International Airport . It originated at Reagan National Airport in U.S.A.
The plane took its landing,in heavy rain in bad weather conditions and some 44 passengers were taken to hospitals, in the proximity, with osteo-probs and back pains, Information Minister Daryl Vaz told The Associated Press. Four people were seriously injured, as per airport officials..
The plane’s fuselage was cracked, its right engine broke off from the impact and the left main landing gear collapsed, told Smith, an American Airlines spokesman at the company’s headquarters in Fort Worth, Texas. Most of the injuries were cuts and bruises and none were life threatening, though he had no details, he said.
The Boeing 737-800 was carrying 148 passengers and a crew of six, American said. The majority of those aboard were Jamaicans coming home for Christmas, Vaz said.
Those getting off the plane were bleeding, mostly from the upper parts of their bodies.
“All of a sudden, when it hit the ground, the plane was kind of bouncing, someone said the plane was skidding and there was panic,” Abaurrea of Keene, N.H., said in a telephone interview.
As the crew opened the emergency exits and people scrambled to get off, 62-year-old Abaurrea and her husband, Gary Wehrwein, noticed a number of people with injuries, including one person who had a cut on his head from falling baggage.
Abaurrea, a person on this flight, said the flight was very turbulent, with the crew being forced to halt the beverage service three times before finally giving it up. Just before landing, the pilot warned of more turbulence but said it likely wouldn’t be much worse than what they had experienced so far, she said.
Some 400 passengers were awaited to reach back home and flight rescheduling.
{Content origin from :Associated Press Writers Danica Coto and Ben Fox and in San Juan.}
