page_title: American Airlines Flight 331
section_title: Aircraft and crew
hierarchical_section_title: American Airlines Flight 331 / Aircraft and crew
caption_attribution_description: This Boeing 737-823 (winglets) crashed at Kingston, Jamaica, on December 23, 2009.
context_page_description: On 22 December 2009, an American Airlines Boeing 737-800, operating American Airlines Flight 331 and carrying 148 passengers and six crew, overran runway 12 on landing at Kingston in poor weather. The plane continued on the ground outside the airport perimeter and broke apart on the beach, causing injuries.
  Factors contributing to the crash include the speed of the aircraft upon landing and the plane touching down more than 4,000 feet from the start of the runway. Contributing factors included American Airlines' failure to provide training on tailwind landings, and the FAA's failure to implement the NTSB's previous recommendation, following a previous fatal accident involving a tailwind landing attempt, that the FAA require commercial operators to train flight crews on tailwind landings.
context_section_description: The aircraft involved was a Boeing 737-823, registration N977AN. The aircraft had manufacturer's serial number 29550 and made its first flight on 30 November 2001. The aircraft made its first flights under registration N1786B and was delivered to American Airlines on 20 December 2001.
  The captain was 49-year-old Brian Cole, who had joined American Airlines in 1986. He had previously served as a captain/check airman on the Boeing 727 and was upgraded to a 737 captain when the airline retired their 727s. Captain Cole had 11,147 flight hours, including 2,727 hours on the Boeing 737, and had prior experience landing on runway 12 at Kingston during inclement weather. 
  The first officer, Daniel Billingsley, had been with American Airlines since 1998, initially serving as a Boeing 727 first officer. He became a first officer on the Boeing 737 in 2002. Billingsley had 6,120 flight hours, with 5,027 of them on the Boeing 737. Both pilots had previously flown together. First Officer Billingsley stated that he "was very comfortable flying" with Captain Cole.
caption: N977AN, the aircraft involved, photographed in April 2007, 2 years and 8 months before the accident.
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