Caribbean crash at Georgetown Guyana

[Delta777LR]

from the pictures i saw, yes i can see that the flaps and slats were never out or the spoilers.. my guess too is that with the flaps not down, it oversped and overan the runway.. possibly pilot error.. that brings me back the crash of AA1420 in Little Rock back in 99 as the MD-80 lands in bad storm not deploying the spoilers and overan the runway as well..

[PhilDernerJr]

As for the separation, I thought they were INTENDED to separate at those parts, as a way to prevent it from breaking in other areas that may be more fatal. I didn't see the linked-to video, but the breakup immediately reminds me of the American and Turkish 737 crashes also....keep in mind fatalities were minimal.

[DHG750R]

Interesting facts and witness accounts coming out now..

Georgetown Airport's fire commander told the investigators that firefighters observed the aircraft as it approached but touched down only about half way down the runway abeam the terminal building with about 3000 feet of runway remaining. They needed to douse engine #2 (right hand engine) which was emitting smoke after the aircraft came to a stop.

Aviation sources said, the aircraft touched down with flaps fully extended (40 degrees).

On Aug 10th it became known to The Aviation Herald, that the flight data recorder showed the flaps at position 30 degrees on final approach, touchdown and rollout, the flaps indicator still showed the flaps at position 30 degrees after the accident

[USAF Pilot 07]

The crew would have been foolish to attempt a landing on that runway with no flaps/slats, and there are probably too many safety checks in the 737 that would have alerted them to the fact that they weren't extended. So, while the pictures show the flaps/slats retracted, it's tough for me to believe they attempted the approach with them retracted unless they were simply incompetent.

DHG750R's post makes more sense. The end of a 7000' contaminated runway will sneak up on you quickly; landing past the landing zone in a jet is just asking for trouble. Most likely, much of the same happened in this case as in the case of that AA jet that overran the runway a little while back in the Carribean; the crew landed long and simply didn't have enough runway left to stop. Luckily, no one was killed.

[mgwsy]

I got a pic of the plane earlier this year at JFK.