A Brief Note On American Airlines Flight 1420

The American Airlines McDonnell Douglas MD-82 carrying 143 passengers attempted a landing in fierce winds just shy of midnight on June 2, 1999. As the flight was en-route to Little Rock the Air Traffic Control (ATC) facility at the Little Rock Airport reported to the pilots that a thunderstorm had moved into the area with strong

There are many aircraft accident factors in which investigators need to pursue in order to come to a good conclusion on what the cause or causes of an aircraft accident were. A portion of what the investigator looks into is the human factors surrounding the accident. This highly diverse and expansive area needs to be systematically looked into to figure out if any human factors were causation of an aircraft accident. One model that investigators utilize in order to sift through the human factors that may be attributable to an accident is the Human Factors Analysis and Classification System (HFACS) Model. This Model breaks down human factors into four different sections, organizational influences, unsafe supervision, preconditions for unsafe acts, and unsafe acts of operators. Throughout this case study, the accident of American Airlines flight 1420 will be dissected utilizing the HFACS Model to uncover human factors issues with the aircraft operator organization, aircraft flight crew, and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).

Multiple factors were contributing to American Airlines fatal accident in 1999. To identify the factors and different issues with American Airlines Flight 1420 the SHELL model will be used. One of the major cause of this accident was a breakdown in Liveware-Software. Liveware-Software investigates procedures, manuals, checklists and standard operational procedures (ICAO SHELL Model, 2016).

One notable event on Riker's Island was Northeast Airlines Flight 823. According to Correction History, “On February 1, 1957, at around 6:00 p.m. a plane of the Northeast Airlines to Miami from LaGuardia Airport crash-arrived on the penitentiary grounds on Riker's Island, a couple of minutes in the wake of taking off from the field”. In addition, “there were ninety-one travelers on the plane, of whom twenty were murdered as a result of the crash and blast” (Correction History). As indicated by Gabrielle Fonrouge (2017), According to Gabrielle Fonrouge (2017), “the Miami-bound plane crashed into a patch of trees on Rikers Island, ripping off its wings and bursting into flames less than a minute after take-off”. Detainees dashed to the plane crash to help survivors. As agreed by Lion Calandra (2017), “Rikers Assistant Deputy Warden James Harrison made the unprecedented decision to release prisoners to aid in the rescue”. (1) “Harrison gave the order to release more than 50 inmates known as “trusties” prisoners whose good behavior had earned the guards’ trust. (2) “They raced to the scene to help stunned passengers and crew” (Lion Calandra, 2017).

American Airlines Flight 1420 tragically crashed on June 1, 1999. The flight crew attempted to land the McDonnell Douglas DC-9-82 in Little Rock, Arkansas during a thunderstorm. The aircraft overran the runway, crashing through several obstacles before coming to rest 800 feet from the end of the runway. Eleven people were killed and over 100 injured. This preventable accident was the result of human error, miscommunication, and poor decision making. After investigating the Flight 1420 crash, the NTSB made several recommendations to the FFA addressing the issues that led to the accident in an attempt to prevent such errors in the future.

This crash is considered to be the second deadliest aviation accident at the time in the US.

On the morning of September 11th, 2001, at 8:46 a.m., the United States was attacked by members of the terrorists from Al-Qaeda. Nineteen hijackers from Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Lebanon, hijacked four American passenger jets bound for California. Both flight 11 of American Airlines and flight 175 of United Airlines would be flown into the north and south towers of the World Trade Center in New York City. American Airlines flight 77 would be flown into the Pentagon in Washington D.C. Finally, United Airlines flight 93 would be flown into a farmer’s field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, failing to reach

On a snowy day on March 10, 1989, Air Ontario flight 1363 was initiating take off at Dryden Airport, Canada by Captain George C. Morwood. It was the second part of the flying schedule for that day which was a round trip from Winnipeg to Thunder Bay, with midway stops at Dryden. Both pilots were highly experienced. Captain Morwood had been flying for almost 35 years and his first officer, Keith Mills, has had over 10,000 hours of flying. However, both pilots were fairly new to the aircraft, which was an F28-1000, having less than 150 hours combined.

On a clear Tuesday Morning, approximately nineteen (19) militants of a radical group known as Al Qaeda boarded and hijacked four different airliners. The First Aircraft, a Boeing 767 flying out of Boston, Struck the North Tower of the World Trade Center at 0845 local time. The Second, another Boeing 767, struck the South Tower of the World Trade Center approximately eighteen (18) minutes later. As millions of Americans watched the events transpire on T.V. a third aircraft, a Boeing 757, collided with the Pentagon at approximately 0945 local. A fourth aircraft, United-Airlines Flight 93 out of Newark New Jersey, was hijacked. The passengers onboard attacked the hijackers and the plane plummeted toward the ground crashing into a field in

American Airlines Flight 1420 is the aircraft that I will be writing about in this essay. It is classified as a runway overrun accident. The department that investigated the accident was the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB). Human factors will be the focus in this project by using the Human Factor Analysis and Classification System (HFAC) Model. I will be focusing on two different human factor areas and relate those to the chain of event that caused the aircraft to overrun the runway.

Flight 1420 was a disaster that taught the aviation community several important lessons. All the Seven Major Elements of Aviation safety can be seen as contributing factors but the greatest factor was human error and the impact of pilot fatigue. With proper preventative measures, the pilots probably would have had the time to arm the MD-82’s spoiler system and the flight would have touched down safely.

The airplane took off northeast from Runway 4 at 3:25 pm, Skiles was the first to notice flock of birds approaching the aircraft while passing through an altitude of about 2,800 feet on the initial climb out to 15,000 feet. According to the flight data recorder (FDR) data, the bird encounter occurred at 3:27 PM when the passengers and cabin crew reported hearing “very loud bangs” from both engines and seeing flaming exhaust along with a strong odor of unburned fuel in the cabin (World). The airplane was at an altitude of 2,818 feet and a distance about 4.5 miles north-northwest of the approach end of runway 22 at LaGuardia Airport. Even though the airplane was struck by flock of birds, the airplane’s altitude continued to increase while the airspeed decreased until 3:27 PM, when the airplane reached its highest altitude of roughly 3,060 feet at roughly 185 knots (213 mph). The altitude then started to decrease as the airspeed started to increase reaching 215 knots at 3:28 PM at an altitude of about 1,650 feet. At this point, Sullenberger took over the controls while Skiles begins going through the emergency procedures checklist in an attempt to restart the engines. Sullenberger asked the departure controller if they could attempt an emergency landing in Teterboro Airport as a possibility and was quickly gained permission to do so but he made his intention clear to bring the plane

This project will reveal the importance of the rules spelled out in the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) 14 Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) Part121 concerning airline safety. Without strict adherence to these rules, the level of safety is severely compromised and dangers associated with air travel are heightened. Every moving part will be explored including management, dispatch, scheduling, hub coordinators, flight operations, airport operations, ground handling, airport customer service, airport maintenance, and the role that each plays in day to day operations. This paper includes how culturally specific operations change by region, as well as the effects of technology on the congested skies monitored by the International

On February 24th, 1989 United Airlines 811 (UA811) took off from Honolulu International Airport, Hawaii (HNL) for a regularly scheduled 8 hour flight to Auckland, New Zealand. The routine flight aboard the Boeing 747-122 had left Los Angeles, California enroute to Sydney, Australia, but made a scheduled intermediate stop in Honolulu and would make one more in Auckland (NTSB, 1992, p. 1). UA811 departed Gate 10, at HNL, 3 minutes late with 3 flight crew, 15 flight attendants and 337 passengers onboard (NTSB, 1992, p. 1). The flight took place in the aftermath of Lockerby and additional boarding procedures were in place adding to an extended passenger boarding process. The second officer noted that all cabin and cargo door lights were out prior to departing the gate (NTSB, 1992, p. 2). The captain was at the controls for the takeoff from HNL runway 8R at 0152:49 HST (NTSB, 1992, p. 2). “The flightcrew reported the airplane’s operation to be normal during the take off and during the initial and intermediate segments of the climb” (NTSB, 1992, p. 2). Due to thunderstorms enroute the flightcrew elected to deviate left of course and the captain left the passenger seat belt sign “on”. When climbing between 22,000 feet and 23,000 feet at 300 knots the flightcrew

On August 14, 2013 United Postal Service (UPS) Flight 1354, an Airbus A300-600, crashed short of runway 18 during a localizer non-precision approach to runway 18 at Birmingham-Shuttlesworth International Airport, Birmingham, Alabama (BHM). The pilot and first officer were the only two people on board and both were killed. The aircraft was completely destroyed by ground impact at the post-crash fire (National Transportation Safety Board [NTSB], 2014, p. 13).