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Are Caribbean Airports Lacking Basic Safety?

Report on airport accident in Jamaica could take two years
Guyana News / Guyanese Info

KINGSTON, Jamaica (JIS) -- Inspector Christopher 'Rally' Bickford of the Jamaica Civil Aviation Authority (JCAA), says it could take up to two years before investigators can definitively say what caused last December's accident involving American Airlines flight 331 at Kingston's Norman Manley International Airport.
Source: Caribbean Net News Daily Headlines: Jamaica

Safety Basic Lacking Airports Caribbean Are

Bad Caribbean Airports

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. Ref. USAToday