US agency to examine recorders from Guyana jet

GEORGETOWN, Guyana (AP) — U.S. investigators will soon examine the flight data recorders from a Caribbean Airlines jet that skidded off a rain-slicked runway in Guyana and split apart, officials said Monday. No one died in the weekend accident.

Kelly A. Nantel, a spokeswoman with the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board in Washington, said the recorders from the cracked Boeing 737-800 were expected to arrive at an agency lab on Monday evening.

The U.S. agency has a team in Guyana assisting the South American country's civil aviation authority with their crash investigation.

Caribbean Airlines spokeswoman Laura Asbjornsen said the pilot and crew remain in Guyana to work with investigators.

"We have no other information at this time about the incident," said Asbjornsen, adding the Trinidad-based carrier has set up a counseling center for passengers and their families.

The plane, carrying 162 people, slid off the end of the runway early Saturday.

Authorities have been upgrading systems at the airport that help pilots to land, but not all of the new systems were operating at the time of the crash, according to Guyana's Civil Aviation Director Zulfikar Mohamed.

Officials and aviation experts have cautioned it was far too early to say if the lack of the systems was a factor in the crash.

Mohamed has said there was light rain, but visibility was 5 miles (8 kilometers) at the time the plane landed early Saturday.