Quick Rundown:
American Airlines Flight 1420
Dallas/Fort Worth International (DFW)
Little Rock National Airport (LIT)
McDonnell Douglas MD-82
N215AA
As Flight 1420 sat at the gate in Dallas, dispatch was pushing the crew to expedite the departure of flight 1420 to race the storm that was scheduled into the Little Rock area later around their arrival time. As 1420 pushed off the gate, the first officer recited that their alternate airport was Nashville (BNA). The first officer was a recent hire to American Airlines. The Captain was the chief pilot for the MD-80 using flight 1420 to maintain his line flying currency.
Once airborne, the flight was normal, drinks were served, people dozed of, and the flight seemed to be perfectly normal until the first officer got a message from dispatch to "Expedite their arrival." The first officer continued to monitor the airplane's radar cone ahead of them and there were clumps of red and amber indicating very heavy storms. Two wind shear reports were reported to the aircraft over the radio approximately two minutes later of the first officer's questioning weather to continue their approach to Little Rock.
Weather Radar Over Little Rock June 1 1999 as AA1420 approached the feild
As the aircraft continued it's approach to the Little Rock area, a severe thunderstorm approached the feild and the controller's last report to the aircraft before touchdown stated winds at 330degrees, at 28 knots. This exceeded the MD-82's cross wind limitation for a safe landing on a wet runway.
The Captain, who again was the chief pilot for the MD-80 over ruled the first officer's questioning and decided to continue with the approach. With the continued push from dispatch to get the airplane on the ground, both pilots forgot a critical component of the landing checklist that sealed the aircraft's fate; arming the ground spoilers.
The MD-82 crossed the piano keys no later then 2355CST and slammed onto the tarmac according to passengers. The CVR picked up "We're down......we're sliding! We're sliding!" From the First Officer. The captain put in full brake input and reverse to the number one engine. With the contaminated runway and the lack of ground spoilers, the braking was ineffective. The MD-82 was still flying in theory. The MD-82 overran the runway and hit the ILS tower at the end of the runway. The accident claimed the lives of 11 including the captain.
The Morning after the accident
What We Missed; What We Learned
1) Leaving Dallas
The crew was very aware that there were terrible storms in the area. The choice to leave Dallas, and then to not use Nashville was a combined problem between the crew and the push from dispatch to get that aircraft to Little Rock.
2) Diversion to Nashville
Again, with the terrible storms approaching Little Rock, Nashville should have been utilized in my opinion. Yes the push from dispatch was there so that the aircraft could be used for the morning flight out of Little Rock and the crew was very close to timing out. However, neither the crew, nor aircraft returned to Dallas that next morning.
3) Spoilers
Witnesses over the wings say that "no devices popped up upon landing." This is consistent with the fact that the spoilers did not show up on the FDR. As we know, once the main struts compress, the spoilers will pop up on the wings to spoil the lift on the wing helping with braking.
4) Crew Dynamics
The first officer was a new hire flying with the chief pilot of the MD-82. Better pairing of crews should be considered in the future.
5) ILS Tower
When the MD-80 departed the runway and hit the ILS tower, the aircraft broke into 3. Normally this wouldnt have been such a problem and puzzled NTSB investigators for quite sometime. The previous ILS tower at LIT had been taken away in a flood in the current of the Arkansas river which is at the departure end of 4L. Usually these structures would break away upon an impact, but to prevent being swept away, this ILS tower was built rigid and reinforced on purpose.
6)EMAS
Little Rock did not have an arresting system at the time of the accident. Updates have been made to LIT.
Why Didn't They Live?
American Airlines Flight 1420 was a survivable impact and a survivable accident as per the NTSB. We did loose 10 passengers and the captain because the deceleration forces did not remain within human tolerances for some as well as those affected by post crash factors.
The captain was killed instantly upon striking the ILS tower when the structure penetrated the cockpit shell.
A passenger in 27E was killed instantly when the aircraft stopped violently because he was standing up on landing without a proper restraint.
The remaining passengers were killed with lack of fuselage and seat track integrity. They were all located in areas where the aircraft split into one of three places.
Finally an evacuation concern that popped up in this accident was proper evacuation using the tailcone on MD-80 family aircraft.
The squat switch is in the landing gear on many aircraft, on the DC-9 family in particular it is a fail safe for tailcone deployment. If deployed in water, the tailcone sill is below the water level so it would take in water and the weight of the engines and groups of people was always a concern during water evacuaton but more so the sill level. In a dry evacuation it is there to prevent deployment in belly landings or when the landing gear is torn off because the height needed to jetison the tailcone is not there and it would jam causing a secodary impact hazard. Luckily the flight attendant had seen in a bolt of lighting that during the impact with the ILS tower, the tailcone had separated just enough to squeeze 4 people out.