BWIA West Indies Airways Flight 432
McDonnell Douglas MD-83 · Incident: overrun during landing
From Grantley Adams International Airport (TBPB) to Miami International Airport (KMIA)
Event
- NTSB case
- MIA02IA047
- Event typeAccident: someone killed or seriously injured, or the aircraft substantially damaged (NTSB definition). Incident: an occurrence that affected or could have affected safety, short of that. Glossary
- Incident
- InvestigationHow far the investigation had got when the record was published: preliminary, ongoing, final or completed. Unknown where the source does not say. Glossary
- Completed
- API-reported fatalities
- 0 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- Unknown
- OperationWhat kind of flying it was, grouped by the rules it flew under: airline (US Part 121), air taxi and commuter (Part 135), general aviation (Part 91 and similar), military or government. Glossary
- Airline
- WeatherVisual meteorological conditions (VMC): good enough to fly by looking outside. Instrument conditions (IMC): cloud or low visibility, flying by instruments. Glossary
- Visual Meteorological Cond
McDonnell Douglas MD-83
- Aircraft type
- McDonnell Douglas MD-83
- Category
- Airplane
- RegistrationThe aircraft's tail number, such as N12345 or G-ABCD. Registrations are reissued, so the same one years apart can be a different aircraft. Glossary
- 9Y-THQ
- Operator
- BWIA West Indies Airways
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Grantley Adams International Airport (TBPB), BridgetownTo Miami International Airport (KMIA), Miami, FL
- Aircraft age
- Not recorded
- Flight rulesThe regulations the flight operated under: in the US, Part 91 (general aviation), Part 121 (airlines), Part 135 (air taxi and commuter) and others; for flights abroad, the NTSB's coarser commercial or non-commercial code. Glossary
- Part 129: Foreign
- Phase of flightThe stage of the flight when things started to go wrong: standing, taxi, takeoff, initial climb, en route, maneuvering, approach or landing. Glossary
- Landing · landing roll
- First occurrenceThe single coded event the NTSB judges best describes what happened (records from 2008 on). Older records name the first occurrence in the sequence instead. Glossary
- Overrun
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Minor
Cause areas
- Copilot/second pilot › Airspeed, excessive
- Copilot/second pilot › Go-around, not performed
- Copilot/second pilot › Planned approach, improper
- Pilot in command › Supervision, inadequate
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The captain stated the first officer was flying the airplane for the approach and landing. He and the first officer performed a briefing for the localizer 30 approach to Miami International Airport, prior to beginning descent. During landing on runway 30, the airplane floated for a while before touchdown, after the first officer flared for landing. After a few seconds, he, the captain, took control of the airplane during the landing roll. It appeared the airplane would over run the runway and collide with an approach light structure. The captain steered the airplane to the left side of the runway and brought it to a complete stop with the nose wheel in a sandy area. He shutdown the engines and deplaned the passengers. The airplane was then towed to the gate. Readout of the digital flight data recorder showed the decent from cruise flight to 10, 000 feet appeared normal and at 10,000 feet the airplane maintained 250 knots airspeed. During descent from 10,000 feet the airspeed began to increase, reaching over 300 knots as the airplane descended through 5,000 feet. An airspeed of over 300 knots was maintained until within 4 miles of the runway and an altitude of 1,500 feet. The airplane crossed over the runway threshold at over 100 feet, as measured by the radio altimeter, and over 200 knots airspeed, at least Vref + 70 knots. The touchdown speed was approximately 150 knots. Full wing spoilers or speed brakes were deployed from 4.5 to 2.5 miles remaining to the runway or between 1,700 and 800 feet altitude. Wing slat extension began at an altitude of 1,200 feet and 290 knot airspeed. Wing flap extension began at 900 feet and 280 knot airspeed. The landing gear was extended at 1.5 miles from the runway at an altitude of 400 feet. The ground spoilers were not deployed after landing. The airplane appears to have touched down over 5,000 feet past the runway threshold. The airplane came to rest about 90 degrees left of runway heading.
Probable cause
The failure of the first officer to fly a stabilized approach at the correct airspeed and his failure to execute a missed approach resulting in touchdown about 5,000 feet past the runway threshold at an excessive airspeed and over run of the runway prior to stopping. Contributing to the incident was the failure of the captain to properly supervise the first officer and take corrective action.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record MIA02IA047
- Event ID
- 20020103X00009
- Case number
- MIA02IA047
- Dataset
- historical-pre2008
- Source SHA-256
- 89e2df6d848e7ab3b42e7d7c7a03ff403303057a26ca04c95b3ea67201c3ce74
Source notes (4)
- Unreviewed is an editorial label, not an investigation status. API-sourced is not report-checked or human-reviewed. Explicit event totals are used without summing aircraft injury tables; onboard allocation is withheld. Unknown values remain unknown. The operation category is mapped from the NTSB-reported FAR part and has not been reviewed.
- Filled from the NTSB case API where the bulk record had no value: investigation status, coordinates. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date, which is the same as the UTC date the NTSB stores.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 8d364f0d3636a0e587788852d567afcef89f9a2e873fb7785e8cd6622adf95cf; retrieved 2026-09-18T16:07:06.343Z.