It’s been more than five years since an American Airlines jet flying in from Miami made a crash landing at a Jamaican airport, and investigators are just now coming up with a possible explanation for the crash.

While an investigation began immediately after the plane crash, it took years for the investigators to come up with a theory as to why the plane crash landed at the airport. There were numerous possible explanations, but the team has finally agreed on one and can close the investigation.

The American Airlines plane overshot a rain-drenched runway at the seaside Norman Manley International Airport in Kingston in 2009 and slammed into a perimeter fence. It then skidded across a road and came to rest on some rocks near the Caribbean Sea.

The plane was destroyed but luckily, all 54 people aboard survived the crash landing. 14 people were injured with non-life-threatening injuries.

The Jamaica Civil Aviation Authority has been investigating the crash and finally issued its final report on the incident this week.

The report said,

“The investigation involved a number of very involved processes. The experienced flight crew decided to land in heavy rain on a wet runway with a tail wind close to the landing limit. They were not aware of a standing water warning for the airport’s runways in manuals, the investigation found. The report found the crew did not do an adequate landing distance assessment and crossed the runway threshold 20 feet (six meters) above the ideal height, touching down farther along the runway than it should have. Descending through cloud cover, the flight crew “were possibly fatigued after being on duty for nearly 12 hours, and awake for more than 14 hours.”

The report was forwarded to the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board. American Airlines did not release a statement on the findings and may or may not agree with them.

Why do you think it took so long for the JCAA to release the final report and do you think the report is accurate?

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