Gusty Landing Injures Six

The FAA says it will look into a landing mishap in blustery conditions that landed six occupants of an American Airlines A321neo in hospital briefly on Saturday in Hawaii. “American Airlines Flight 271, an Airbus A320 (FlightAware lists an A321neo), made a hard landing on Runway 20 at Kahului Airport in Hawaii at approximately 2 p.m. local time.... The FAA will investigate,” the FAA said in a statement. Five of the injured were crew members and the other a passenger. The nature of the injuries wasn't released.

The flight originated in Los Angeles and the airline said it took the plane out of service for an inspection after the rough arrival. According to FlightAware, the flight took almost seven hours to cover the distance, about an hour longer than normal. A strong atmospheric river was sweeping from the southwest over much of the flight path and winds were gusting to almost 30 knots at close to runway heading (2/20) at Kahului at the time of the mishap.

Russ NilesEditor

Russ Niles is Editor-in-Chief of AVweb. He has been a pilot for 30 years and joined AVweb 22 years ago. He and his wife Marni live in southern British Columbia where they also operate a small winery.