By DAVE MICHAELS / The Dallas Morning News
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Dallas Morning News staff writer Eric Torbenson in Dallas contributed to this report.

WASHINGTON – An American Airlines crew that crashed at a Jamaican airport last month chose a more difficult approach for landing and then overshot its runway, investigators said Wednesday.

In its first update into the Dec. 22 crash, the Jamaica Civil Aviation Authority said air traffic controllers suggested that Flight 331's pilots maneuver the plane into a headwind to land, which would have slowed its speed. But the crew members "repeated their request" to land on the rain-slicked runway from the north, where a stiff tailwind boosted their speed.

The landing was made more challenging because the pilots overshot the runway's touchdown zone – where a plane's wheels are supposed to contact the ground – limiting the distance they had to stop. The plane bounced upon landing, which further decreased its stopping distance.

The Boeing 737-800, which took off from Miami, overran the runway at Kingston-Norman Manley International Airport and broke through a fence before coming to rest on a rocky beach. The jet nearly struck a series of concrete posts that could have resulted in deaths, investigators said. There were no fatalities among the 148 passengers and six crew members, but the jet was cracked open in two places.

Investigators didn't release a probable cause of the crash Wednesday. They did say that the plane's braking system worked normally, while the flight-data recorder indicated "the rate of deceleration appears normal for a wet runway," the investigators said in a factual finding report.

"If the braking was normal, and the airplane did not stop, it could be that it did not have enough runway remaining to stop," said Lt. Col. Oscar Derby, director general of the Jamaica Civil Aviation Authority.

Investigators aren't ready to say why the pilots overshot their landing threshold, which is typically the first one-third of a runway. The pilots of Flight 331 first touched down at 4,100 feet into the 8,910-foot runway. They used an advanced navigational aid known as a heads-up display, which should have guided them to the appropriate point to land, according to the report.

Had the pilots decided it was too dangerous to land in Kingston, their plane had enough fuel to fly to the alternate destination of Grand Cayman, the report said.

A spokesman for American Airlines declined to comment on the report Wednesday.

The pilots told Jamaican investigators that the aircraft "did not decelerate normally, and they subsequently applied maximum manual (pedal) breaking." However, the plane's computer showed that its auto-braking system "decelerated normally," the report said.

Some passengers reported sensing the jet hydroplane, which happens when the plane's wheels spin over a sheet of water instead of making contact with the runway. Hydroplaning can impair a plane's braking system.

Investigators began a test of the asphalt runway Wednesday evening, Derby said. The test will show how slick it becomes in rainy conditions.

Flight 331 was traveling about 170 mph, the recommended airspeed for landing the Boeing 737-800, as it approached the runway, investigators said. A tailwind of about 16 mph increased its speed, however. The tailwind landing limit for the Boeing 737-800 is about 17 mph.

The jet was still traveling about 72 mph when it left the runway and crashed through the airport's perimeter fence, crossed a road and came to a stop on the beach, about 40 feet from the water.