American Airlines Flight 1420 Research Papers

The story of American Airlines Flight 1420 begins as the sun begins to set on the first day of June in 1999, travelers of American Airlines Flight 1420 loaded up a MD-82 passenger jet in Dallas, Texas, bound for Little Rock, Arkansas. It was warm, the air muggy and the stage set for catastrophe. American Airlines Flight 1420 is often referred to as racing the storm. Along to central plains of the United States in springtime, cool, dry Canadian flows southward while sticky, sultry, unstable air lingers over the central states. At the point when these two air masses collide something short of meteorology magic happens, the stage is set for savage, sever thunderstorms. It was on the eve of June 1, 1999 that the conditions mentioned occurred

The aircraft, which was to operate American Airlines Flight 1420, was previously delayed in Dallas due to less than favorable weather conditions early that day. This delay cascaded and as a result American Airlines Flight 1420 was delayed. American Airlines Flight 1420 was to be operated by Captain Richard Buschmann and First Officer Michael Origel. Both pilots where getting close to exceeding their duty days due to lengthy delays. This is often referred to as “Timing out”. Prior to departure, the flight crew was notified to the deteriorating weather conditions en-route and at the destination. The Captain not wanting to cancel the flight ensured operations that if they departed now

Once airborne and en-route to the destination is when the crew realized there was the possibility of not making it to the destination before the weather moved into the vicinity of the Little Rock Airport. To further complicate and cloud the flight crews decision making, while en-route, the flight dispatcher messaged the flight crew stating that the storms were quickly approaching Little Rock, but a "bowling alley" free from thunderstorms existed and suggested that they speed up their approach to evade the bad weather. The crew figured that the dispatcher had a better big picture view of the flight and would not recommend this if it would be putting them and the flight at risk. According to the findings by the NTSB, the cause of the crash/accident of American Airlines 1420 was pilot error, failure to discontinue an approach in poor weather conditions, less than what was required for landing on the given runway, failure to arm the spoilers which resulted than a longer than normal ground roll with inefficient braking ability. After reviewing the findings generated in the NTBS report, I would tent to agree with it. While it is far easier to sit at my desk and write a report about a series of mistakes that a crew made that sadly ended in loss of life, I am reminded that as a Captain myself, it too is my responsibility to provide the safest means of