Fly Jamaica Airways Flight 256

Fly Jamaica Airways Flight 256 was a scheduled international passenger flight from Cheddi Jagan International Airport in Guyana to Toronto Pearson International Airport in Canada. On 9 November 2018, the Boeing 757 aircraft serving the flight suffered a hydraulic failure, forcing its return and resulting in a runway excursion on landing. This caused significant damage to the aircraft and one passenger fatality.

Aircraft
The aircraft involved was a Boeing 757-23N, registration N524AT, powered by two Rolls-Royce RB211 engines. It was built in 1999 and first flew with ATA Airlines, VIM, Aurela and Thomas Cook before being acquired by Fly Jamaica in 2012.

Accident
The aircraft departed from Cheddi Jagan International Airport in Guyana on 9 November 2018 at 02:10 local time, bound for Toronto, Canada. The flight subsequently reported a fault with the hydraulic system; as a result, the pilot aborted the climb and the plane returned to the departure airport for an emergency landing, touching down at 02:53. During the landing, the aircraft overran the runway and hit the airport perimeter fence, sustaining substantial damage in the process to the right-hand main landing gear and the No. 2 engine.

Passengers and crew
There were 120 passengers and 8 crew members on board the aircraft. Ten people were injured and an 86-year-old female passenger subsequently died five days later due to injuries sustained during the incident.

The pilot-in-command was 58-year-old Captain Basil Ferguson, he joined Fly Jamaica Airways in 2018, and had a total of 11,755 flight hours. The second-in-command was 33-year-old First Officer Keone Bryan, he joined the airline in 2017, and had a total of 4,331 flight hours, including 317 hours on the Boeing 757.

Investigation
The accident was investigated by the Guyana Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA) with assistance from the Canadian Transportation Safety Board (TSB) and the United States National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB).

The GCAA concluded in its final report that the major cause of the accident was the “loss of hydraulic fluid, failure of the pressure switch and subsequent total failure of the hydraulic system (firstly the left and subsequently the right) which affected the deployment of some spoilers, thrust reversers and efficacy of the main brakes caused the aircraft to continue the landing roll at a high-speed resulting in an overrun and excursion and severe damage to the aircraft.”

Aftermath
After the accident Fly Jamaica Airways ceased its operation on March 31, 2019, aggravated by financial difficulties and lack of aircraft.

Lawsuit
A few weeks after the accident, two class-action lawsuits against Fly Jamaica Airways and Boeing, the plane's manufacturer, were filed by the passengers of the flight demanding a payment of $5 million. Furthermore, the lawsuits could proceed as individual actions. According to this lawsuits, the protagonists involved in the event are accused of negligence, that the plane had difficulties while taking off and that the crew had not declared the emergency situation beforehand.

Finally, on January 10, 2024, the Ontario Superior Court of Justice approved the payment of $5.55 million which was awarded to the 84 members of the class-action lawsuit made up of passengers and their families. Other members of an individual class-action lawsuit could receive $8,000 to $25,000 each based on the severity of their injuries.