The accident occurred in December 29, 2010. The accident involved an American airline flight aeroplane 2253, a Boeing 757-200, N668AA. The plane veered off at the far end of the runway 19 on departure. The plane then crashed in snow on landing At Jackson Hole Airport at Jackson Hole in Wyoming. The plane came to an instant stop in the deep snow and luckily the people inside it were not hurt. There were no casualties after evaluation of the accident by the NTSB/AAR-12-/1 report, but the plane was damaged on the rear part although the damages were minor.
Occurrence of the Accident
The accident occurred on December 29, 2010 whereby the American Airline flight 2253, a Boeing 757-200, N668AA veered off runaway lane nineteen immediately after landing Jackson Hole Airport in Wyoming. The aircraft came to a standstill about seven hundred and thirty feet deep in the snow at the far end of the runaway lane. On board were hundred and seventy nine passengers, two pilots and four flight attendants. All the occupants of the plane survived unscathed but the aircraft sustained minor damages. The aircraft was a domestic flight under the American Airline and was registered ain provision fourteen Code of Federal Regulations section twenty one. The aircraft adhered to requirements of instrument flight rules flight plan. The aircraft was on the way to Wyoming from Chicago O'Hare International Airport in Chicago, Illinois at about 0941 Central Standard Time. Before the incident at the Jackson Hole Airport, The evaluation as indicated by the cockpit voice recorder and statements from the occupants showed that co-pilot was in charge of the aircraft while the pilot was monitoring the directions during the journey from Illinois to Chicago. Oblivious of what was awaiting them ahead in Jackson Hole Airport in Wyoming, both pilot and the co-pilot stated that they were aware of the weather conditions in Wyoming. It was in winter in Wyoming. Therefore the pilot and co-pilot knew the challenges ahead of them in landing the aircraft. During the journey, the pilot had assessed all possible details of Jackson Hole Airport such as runway status, wind, runaway friction status and pilot braking status. The pilots assessed all the possibilities of delays, alternative airports and options for different occurrences in case of emergency. The aircraft was given a go ahead to landing by the American Airlines 737 landing charts in Wyoming in accordance to the good landing weather, aircraft weight and good braking action in the runaways reported on the first two thirds of the runaway earlier. The pilots reached an agreement to land the aircraft in the range of a thousand feet of the runaway and then use automatic wheel brakes and thrust reversers to control the speed of the aircraft. The pilots wanted to utilise the good breaking status of the runaway nineteen whereby they prepared the speed brakes for automatic action on touching the ground by pressing 'MAX AUTO' button.
Reports from NTSB and aircraft occupants indicated that the pilots acted normally per regulations when approaching the airport while the landing was normal beyond six hundred feet of the earlier stipulated height. The co-pilot reported that he first used the MAX AUTO settings for speed braking which initially failed. The pilot then took control of the aircraft to try and contain the situation and was successful with two thousand, one hundred feet of the runaway to go. The aircraft speed could not be controlled within the runway and it went past the runaway stopping in deep snow on far end of the runaway. The pilots reported that they did not know that the speed brakes they set did not function automatically as they thought they would do, thus the cause of the accident. NTSB indicated that had the pilots checked the auto braking again before landing they could have controlled the accident through switching to manual mode of braking. The pilot then assessed the situation n of the accidents and requested all in board to stay inside until help arrived. The aircraft had incurred minor damages as the result as shown below:-
Fig.1: A photograph showing the accident scene of Boeing 757-200, N668AA aircraft
Causes of the Accident
Report presented by the National Transportation Safety Board indicated that the accident occurred as a result of malfunction and poor training of the pilots handling the aircraft. NTSB postulated that the accident was initiated by failure of the automatic speed brakes from functioning at that mode during landing. The thrust reversers also contributed to occurrence of this accident whereby they failed to deploy when commanded way back before landing. There was also the case of negligence by the pilot to assess the working nature of the speed brakes before landing. Various safety precautions were broken thus resulting to the accident. The analysis of the accident reported that the pilots were inexperienced in operating the aircraft in that they did not knew situations to which speed brakes are applied and situations where they do not deploy on command. Instead the pilots decided to land the aircraft without confirming the vital details of efficiency of the speed brakes. This indicates a case of negligence whereby if the pilots had cross-checked their operations of the aircraft the incident could have been contained. The pilots could have switched to manual mode of braking instead of auto mode. There is also a case of inefficiency and ineffectiveness as far as aircraft performance rate is concerned. With the latest modern technology the aircraft could have been implanted with indicators to warn the pilots of any malfunctions. The indicators could have monitored the situation and alerted the pilots who in turn could have switched the speed braking mode to manual. Therefore the agency who manufactures such aircrafts could have seen the significance of the indicators in prevention of accident occurrence and installed them.
The issue of operation differs in many aircrafts such that different manufacturing agencies have different operation procedures. Therefore pilots may find it hard to incorporate all the operations of different aircrafts and hence will tend to use general and practical method of operations. This is a critical issue which could have prevented the accident from happening if the pilots have been provided with a guide book on handling the emergencies and malfunctions of the aircraft thus act immediately to contain the situation. There is the issue of inadequate training to the two pilots on matters of multiple occurrences of emergency and malfunctions. Both the speed brakes and the thrust reverser failed to function normally during landing of the aircraft such that the situation was made worse and complicated amounting to the accident. The pilots had experience of changing the automatic braking while landing to manual but due to the concentration on one problem of the situation that is the malfunctioning of the thrust, the pilots' attention to speed brakes operation shifted thus resulting to occurrence of the incident. Report indicates that both pilots did not notice the anomaly of the speed brakes deployment until after the accident had already occurred. If the pilots had gotten enough training on handling multiple emergencies, they could have assessed both situations and rectified them accordingly.
The issue of skills geared towards operation of the aircraft and management were reported by NTSB in the two pilots. This is clearly indicated whereby the two pilots act under duress. The pilot and co-pilot interchanged their role in the course of containing the situation during landing whereby the pilot took control of the reverse thrust levers. This shows a case of disobedience and disrespect on the regulation codes governing pilot responsibilities. If the pilot has stuck to his monitoring job during landing at Jackson Hole Airport, this would have made the pilot to concentrate. Therefore through entire concentration on his task of monitoring, the pilot could have noticed the malfunctioning of speed brake and alerted the co-pilot or changing them to manual mode. Instead he lacked management skills and composure thus acted under duress by taking over the co-pilot role.
The analysis of the report indicates that the pilots were legally fit in accordance to federal regulations and were qualified to fly the aircraft. The report showed that the pilot had nineteen thousands six hundred and forty five hours of total flight time while the co-pilot had eleven thousands and eight hundred hours of total flight time whereby both had graduated in American Airlines in Jackson Hole Airport training with extensive experience of the pilot on board in regard to Wyoming airport. The pilots had three days off before embarking on their task whereby the pilots reported normal occurrences and activities during the time of the flight. Report also indicated that none of the pilot and the co-pilot had issues regarding health, financial or family problem during that period. The thorough research by NTSB indicated that the pilots were not affected by any form of fatigue and had ample rest before and during the journey. Therefore according to this report, the pilots were physically fit and could not have initiated the problem as far as fitness regulations are concerned. The weather was not to blame either because reports showed that a National weather service winter weather advisory presented morning weather whereby there was heavy snow fall and wind. Jackson Hole Airport which has got modern and high technology weather forecasting station reported that the conditions before and after the accident were favourable and could not have caused the accident. The airport weather station also reported slight snowing at the time of the accident. It was also reported that the pilots was well acquainted with the situation on the ground before landing at Jackson Hall Airport and therefore had gathered enough information of the airport landing lane during the journey. The pilot also received reports of braking situation on runaway nineteen with regards to the jet which had landed before them on the same lane. Therefore if the pilots had acted accordingly and followed normal guidelines the aircraft could have landed safely. Therefore NTSB concluded that the pilots had everything in good condition in regards to their health, aircraft status, airport status and their performance qualifications.
According to the NTSB reports, the aircraft performance was good with air and ground sensing system working accordingly. The only malpractice occurred on the deployment of the thrust reversers and speed brakes but both were fully operational. The mechanical defect of the speed brake and the thrust reversers could have been avoided if the pilots changed to manual operation mode.
Conclusion
The accident could be blamed on the pilot entirely partly because of their actions and partly because of malfunctioning of the speed brakes and thrust reversers when commanded. Thus various safety recommendations were paramount in this situation. The Federal Aviation Administration states that all safety rules must be respected and applied to any aircraft and the pilot on board. The pilot therefore should be well conversant with all the operations of the aircraft and well trained to fly any plane. There should be extra training to pilots on handling emergency occurrences and in abnormal situations. There should be also through training to pilot on monitoring skills and aircraft management. The aircraft agencies should deploy manual and other forms of guidance's to the pilot which clearly explains in details every operation practices of the aircraft and emergency handling. If all these recommendations were in place the accident could have been avoided.
