19970205004139I

Narrative: on January 29, 1997, at 20:30 hours, china air flight 981, a Boeing B-747B, B-2448, veered off the right side of runway 31R during a landing at John f. Kennedy international airport (jfk) jamaica, New York. The flight was a regularly scheduled passenger/cargo flight conducted under the provisions of title 14 code of federal regulations (CFR) part 129. Of the 223 people on board this flight, (199) were passengers, (1) infant, and (23) crew members. There were no reported injuries on board the aircraft. The aircraft sustained structural damage. The exact cost is yet to be determined. The weather at the time of landing was VFR. Temperature was 3 degrees celsius. Wind, 010 at 9 KTS. Aircraft, B-2448, was flown from beijing china, to shanghai, to anchorage Alaska with the last leg terminating at New York's jfk airport. A review of the maintenance log book for the three previous days prior to this incident does not reveal any significant mechanical problems. The captain of the aircraft from anchorage to jfk did not report any mechanical defects. The captain stated that he, two other captains, a flight engineer, navigator, and a radio officer were in crew rest for approximately 24 hours in anchorage Alaska. They reported for duty at 08:30(l), and airborne at 10:30(l). Flight time was 5 hours 40 minutes. They landed jfk at 20:35 local time. Captain you zhen zhang was the flying pilot for the leg and indicated he had approximately 2 hours of rest during the flight and was able to eat a crew meal enroute. Captain zhang indicated that he has 5000 hours in the B-747. Total flying time is 18,000 hours. He has made the trip to New York approximately 20 times. There were several other crew members on board the flight and were apparently deadheading to New York. According to the captain the departure, enroute and approach into jfk was normal. There were no significant mechanical items. As previously stated weather in New York was VFR, and approach control assigned the flight to execute the 31R ILS approach. Wind was 010 degrees at 9 KTS. Captain zhang landed the aircraft. Touchdown speed was 140K. Auto brakes were set to minimum, and auto spoilers deployed. Reverse thrust was initiated and the aircraft began a rapid deceleration. The flight engineer reported at this time that the #1 thrustreverser in transit light did not illuminate and that the #1 reverser operating light illuminated but it was sluggish or late in coming on. The captain elected to deselect the #1 and #4 thrust reverser and operated with the #2 and #3 thrust reverser only. At 80K the captain began coming out of reverse thrust and somewhere betwen 50-80KTS, the captain noticed a slight veering motion to the right. The captain tried to compensate by applying left rudder immediately followed by tapping the left brake. The captain states that this had no effect on their direction and they continued to veer off the runway. The aircraft exited the runway and went into a grassy area just prior to taxi-way "victor". The weight and balance manifest shows the take-off gross weight was 312,939 kilo's or 688,465.8 lbs. Landing weight was 252,894 kilo's or 556,366.8 lobs. Complete file has been compiled and sent to sfo-ifo. A copy of this file has been kept at the New York FSDO.