But storm's intensity not known at time of landing

June 3, 1999
Web posted at: 9:11 p.m. EDT (0111 GMT)

LITTLE ROCK, Arkansas (CNN) -- The pilot of the American Airlines jet that crashed during a thunderstorm was warned twice about a dangerous wind shear and received more notice than usual of bad conditions as he brought the plane in for a landing, a federal investigator said Thursday.

But Capt. Richard Buschmann, 48, did not know that the thunderstorm was a level six -- the most intense classification. That fact was determined from data collected after the crash.

More than 100 investigators are collecting and analyzing evidence -- including the flight data recorder, Doppler radar and the 72-hour pre-crash history of the flight crew -- to determine why Flight 1420 skidded off the runway at the Little Rock airport Tuesday night, killing nine people, including Buschmann.

The thunderstorm, with gusts of 75 mph, hit the area Tuesday night just minutes before the plane made a bouncy landing and struck a steel walkway and approach lights at the end of the runway. The plane tore open and caught fire.

Air traffic control had fed a steady stream of weather information to the jetliner's flight crew, a federal investigator said Thursday.

"They were given a regular interval sequence of weather updates, mainly winds and wind directions, by the controller and these were available to the crew to help in their decision making about their flight and their approach," said George Black, a spokesman for the National Transportation Safety Board.

"There's even indications the tower controller was providing sort of a play-by-play wind direction and velocity sequence of radio transmissions during the approach," Black said.

NTSB officials said it was up to the pilot to determine whether it was safe enough to land the plane. They hope to get a doctor's approval to talk to the injured co-pilot Friday about how that decision was made.

Storm approached as plane arrived

"So as the aircraft touched down, he would have encountered heavy rainfall, some hail and some gusty winds," said George Wilken of the NWS.

But at the time of the crash, weather service instruments showed the airport was between two thunderstorms and wind gusts had dropped to 30 miles per hour.

"At the moment of the crash, it was probably at one of the lower levels it had been during the 30-minute period," said Wilken.

Survivors: No control after touchdown

"In my estimation, there was really no control of the aircraft once we touched down," said passenger Stephen Korenek. "It was skidding almost immediately."

"At one point we felt like we were hydroplaning, just like driving a car on a wet road," said passenger Jeff Arnold.

Investigators divided into teams

• Operations -- will check aircraft instrument settings, including final positions of all cockpit switches and controls, and plans to interview the co-pilot on Friday.
• Human factors -- will determine flight and cabin crew history 72 hours before the crash.
• Weather -- will construct diagram of Doppler radar.
• Power plant -- will examine the engines, the first plane parts to be removed from the scene on Friday, and will store the rest of the plane for further examination later.
• Survival and cabin safety -- will chart seat positions of casualties, and gather and return possessions to survivors and families.
• Airport -- will check friction factors, to determine condition of runway.
• Cockpit voice recorder -- a group of experts will listen to the cockpit voice data, including pilots who knew the flight crew, so they can help translate speech patterns or habits if recording is unclear.
• Air traffic control -- will analyze radar data so plane's path can be plotted.
• Performance -- will work with other teams to determine speed and position of plane during landing.

Colleagues say pilot unlikely to take risks

Black says the crew received 'a regular interval sequence of weather updates'

Buschmann was a veteran American pilot with 5,500 hours of flight time in the MD-80 series of aircraft, which includes the MD-82.

His colleagues said Buschmann, who helped supervise 1,800 pilots in Chicago, had an excellent record and was unlikely to take risks.

When the jet crashed, Buschmann and his crew had been on the job for 13-1/2 hours, having flown from Chicago to Salt Lake City and to Dallas before Little Rock. The airline's maximum duty time is 14 hours, while the federal limit is 16.

Investigators want to know whether the pilot's decision to land was influenced by a desire to end the long day and get the plane to its intended airport for the night, to prevent delays the next morning.