Aircraft

Video images appear to show the crashed TACA Airbus A320 still travelling at high speed as it passes the terminal at Tegucigalpa Toncontin Airport, nearly halfway along the short runway it subsequently overran.

The images, purportedly captured by an apron surveillance camera on 30 May, show the aircraft passing beyond the northern edge of the apron as it rolls out after landing on runway 02, clearly wet following rainfall.

At this point the jet is some 650m (2,130ft) beyond the displaced threshold, with just over 1,000m of runway left in which to stop. Estimates based on the time-stamp of the camera, the airport layout and the position of the aircraft suggest the A320 is still travelling at around 130kt.

The resolution of the images, however, makes it difficult to assess whether the A320’s thrust-reversers have been activated or whether its spoilers are deployed.

Five people, including the captain and two passengers on the aircraft, were killed when the jet came off the end of the runway after arriving at the Honduran capital airport from San Salvador.

Both flight recorders have been transported for analysis to the US National Transportation Safety Board.

Under ICAO regulations Honduras’ Government would normally head the investigation but it has delegated the inquiry to the Government of El Salvador.

French air accident investigation agency Bureau d’Enquetes et d’Analyses (BEA) is sending two representatives to assist the probe, and says one of its specialists will aid the NTSB’s retrieval of information from the cockpit-voice and flight-data recorders.

It adds that Ireland’s Air Accident Investigation Unit is also sending its own personnel to assist.

AirSpace gallery: Images of the TACA Airbus A320 after it crashed