NTSB News

NTSB Advisory
National Transportation Safety Board
Washington, DC 20594
March 7, 2000

STATEMENT BY CHAIRMAN JIM HALL ON THE NTSB INVESTIGATION OF THE RUNWAY OVERRUN ACCIDENT
INVOLVING SOUTHWEST AIRLINES FLIGHT 1455



National Transportation Safety Board Chairman Jim Hall today issued the following statement on the Board's investigation of the accident involving Southwest Airlines flight 1455:

On Sunday, March 5, at approximately 6:11 p.m., PST, a Southwest Airlines Boeing 737-300, operated as flight 1455 from Las Vegas, Nevada, overran the departure end of runway 8 while landing at Burbank, California.  The airplane traveled through a fence and came to rest on a highway outside the airport perimeter.  There were no fatalities to the 137 passengers and 5 crew aboard.

The Safety Board immediately dispatched a team of investigators from its regional office in Gardena, California and its Washington, D.C. headquarters.  Safety Board investigators in Burbank are heading up groups in the areas of flight operations, air traffic control, aircraft performance, aircraft structures, aircraft systems, and survival factors.  Additional investigators are working from Washington in the areas of meteorology and airport factors.

Both the cockpit voice recorder (CVR) and the flight data recorder (FDR) were transported to the Board's laboratory in Washington and have been read out by Safety Board engineers.  Today the NTSB established CVR and FDR groups chaired by Board investigators with representatives of the Federal Aviation Administration, Southwest Airlines, Southwest Airline Pilots Association, and the Boeing Company.

The following is preliminary information that the NTSB has gleaned from the CVR, FDR, recorded radar data, and input from air traffic control personnel:

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NTSB Press Officer: Keith Holloway, (202) 314-6100

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