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. It was the most serious accident involving a U.S. carrier since 50 people died in a commuter plane crash near Buffalo on Feb. 12.
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. At least 29 commercial airports in the Caribbean and Latin America lack adequate safety zones at the end of runways, according to a Sept. 29, 2009, report by the ICAO. The organization, which has been pushing for safety upgrades for years, wrote that the list of deficient airports "is still very extensive."
Airports on the list include some of the Western Hemisphere's most-visited vacation destinations, such as Cancun in Mexico and St. Maarten in the Netherlands Antilles. They also include such South American capitals as Tegucigalpa, Honduras, and Guatemala City.
For more:
Many Caribbean, Latin America airports lack safety zones - USATODAY.com
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