KINGSTON, Jamaica — Offshore lights that guide pilots into Jamaica’s main airport had been knocked out for more than a month when an American Airlines jet landed in driving rain and overshot the runway, injuring most of the 154 people on board, officials said Friday.
An underwater electrical fault in November disrupted the 1,300-foot stretch of white lights on a sandbar stretching into the Caribbean Sea, according to Norman Manley International Airport operations director Stanley Smith. Pilots have been regularly advised about the outage, and the runway itself was fully lit, he said.
“The airport has been fully operational since (the outage). . . . But clearly the investigation is still preliminary,” airport vice president Mark Williams told The Associated Press.
American Airlines Flight 331, arriving from Miami, skidded off the runway as it landed in heavy rain Tuesday night. All aboard survived. The Associated Press
