Few Injuries In Two Overruns

A couple of runway overruns in the last few days have wrecked millions in hardware but did not hurt anyone seriously. On Friday morning, a Fly Jamaica Boeing 757 went off the end of Cheddi Jagan International Airport's runway in Guyana and plowed into a sand pile at the lip of a 40-foot drop. The plane had taken off a few minutes earlier for Toronto and returned after reporting hydraulics problems. There were 120 passengers and eight crew aboard and six were slightly injured. That airplane might be useable again but a 747-400 cargo plane will be taken to the scrap heap from Halifax's Stanfield International Airport.

The Skylease Cargo jumbo left Chicago on Wednesday morning to pick up a load of live lobsters for China. It landed on a wet runway in a brisk quartering tailwind and didn't stop in time. It blasted through the localizer antenna and tore off the landing gear and two engines before stopping just short of the perimeter fence about 5 a.m. local time. The four crew members on board had minor injuries. The mishap has closed Runway 14/32, a secondary runway at the largest airport in eastern Canada, but operations are said to be relatively normal.