The plane, flying from Maputo to Nampula, with a stop in Beira, landed during rain. The Boeing left the runway, but the pilot managed to put it back on the asphalt, and the plane came to a halt with four of its tyres blown out.
According to the Beira daily paper "Diario de Mocambique", six of the 120 passengers were slightly injured - not during the landing, but in the panic-stricken rush to leave the aircraft through the emergency shutes.
LAM has launched an inquiry into the causes of the accident, which will look at all relevant aspects, including the performance of the pilot and co-pilot, the weather during the landing, and the state of the Beira airport runway.
11 technical staff, from LAM, from the publicly-owned airport company, ADM, and from the National Civil Aviation Institute, began the investigation on Monday. The technicians sent by LAM will also replace the Boeing's tyres.
The director of Beira airport, Jose da Silva Raimundo, told "Diario de Mocambique" that he expected the plane to make an experimental flight on Wednesday.
Asked whether the Sunday night rain had contributed to the accident, Raimundo replied "this airport is prepared for aircraft to land even in bad weather".
He believed that within a fortnight the commission of inquiry would be able to publish its report into the accident.
LAM is justly proud of its safety record. Since the company was set up, in 1980, it has not had a single fatal accident. And the Sunday landing in Beira was the first accident of any kind involving a LAM plane since 1989.
SOURCE: AIM
