AA 1420 Crash

[Lamboo1]

I just Saw The Air Crash Investigation on National Geogrphic Chanel about AA FLight 1420 From Dallas F.W to Little Rock. The results from the NTSB showed that two Main reasons that caused the MD 82 to slide off the runway was Bad weather conditions and failure of the pilots to arm the speed brakes.

I am studying for my JAA ATPL, and as i recall in the Performance setion, Landing performance doesnt take into consideration the Reverse thrust or the Spoilers or fred flintstone's feet screeching on the runway! Brakes are only taken into consideration, I dont know where the FAA stands regarding this matter however i am sure they are more or less the same. ATC will issue a breaking coefficient (basically how wet the runway is ) and the pilots set the brakes, for example in an airbus the settings are low, med and high. While in the boeings they are 1 , 2 and Max Auto i believe.

Also from the Runway they noted that the plane was sliding across the runway because of all the rain. I agree to what the NTSB said that the pilots should have diverted immediatedly! However Dont pin part of the blame the spoilers! They wouldnt have stopped the plane from sliding off the runway.

( as also the case with the recent AF340 Crash in CYYZ)


Let me know what you think

Thanks

Lamboo1

[a78jumper]

I have read elsewhere that AF 358 was almost out of fuel and could not have diverted too far. how much of that was spent on a slow approach and stacking I can not say.

[Lamboo1]

True! however if the NTSB had found out that the AF crew hadn't armed the spoilers, do you think that they would have also put the blame on that as well?