News Alert: Safety flawed at many Caribbean, Latin American airports

Date: Tue, 12 Jan 2010 18:11:40 -0600

McLEAN, Va. - Many of the busiest airports in the Caribbean and Latin
America lack basic safety features that could have prevented the
recent crash of an American Airlines jet in Jamaica, according to
pilots, aviation safety experts and public documents.

No one died when the American Boeing 737-800 slid off a wet runway and
slammed onto an adjacent rocky beach on Dec. 22, but dozens were hurt
and the jet's fuselage was torn open in several places.

As a result of a string of similar crashes in this country, Congress
and U.S. regulators have required airports to install safety zones at
the end of each runway by 2015 to minimize the chances of damage when
a jet skids off the pavement.

However, despite years of pressure from the United Nations'
International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), few airports south
of the border have built safety zones. Each year, 23.6 million people
travel from the U.S. to these destinations, according to the federal
Bureau of Transportation Statistics.