Animation of Flight 1420 landing [2.2M]
 [Windows Media Format - requires Media Player]

Summary:
This animation shows the last minute of flight for American Airlines Flight 1420, which crashed while landing at Little Rock, Arkansas on June 1, 1999. The reconstruction uses data retrieved from the Digital Flight Data Recorder and excerpts from the Cockpit Voice Recorder transcript. The animation starts with the airplane at a barometric altitude of 664 feet, an airspeed of 154 knots, a Localizer beam deviation of 0.4 DOTS to the right and 0.6 DOTS above the Glide Slope. The animation shows the airplane touching down to the right of the runway centerline and continuing to track to the right nearly reaching the right edge of the runway before changing direction to left. The remaining landing roll shows the airplane passing through the runway centerline and eventually departing the left edge of the runway just before reaching the end of the runway.

The instruments displayed represent the following (from upper right to lower left): Airspeed, Altitude, Artificial Horizon, Heading with Localizer and Glideslope Deviation, Rudder Position, Right inboard spoiler position, Derived control wheel position, Left outboard spoiler position, Thrust reverser position (unlocked or deployed), and Engine Pressure Ratio.

Correction: The aircraft motion depicted in the animation is accurate. However, heading data values and rudder pointers are corrected in the updated version shown at the Board Meeting October 23, 2001.