Dec. 27 (Bloomberg) -- A U.S. safety board said it's investigating an incident in which a British Airways Plc jet carrying U.K. Prime Minister Tony Blair overshot a runway after landing at Miami International Airport yesterday.
The National Transportation Safety Board said statements will be taken from the flight crew and damage to two runway lights has been documented. While the NTSB doesn't always examine such incidents, ``this involved a jumbo jet at a major airport'' with a government leader on board, spokesman Ted Lopatkiewicz said today in an interview.
No one was hurt when Flight 209 from London, with 343 people on board, rolled off the runway at 6:15 p.m. Miami time, the NTSB said in a statement. The Boeing Co. 747 returned to London after an airport inspection found no damage to the jet, the board said.
The plane after landing ``taxied beyond the end of the runway and went into the paved runway overrun area,'' the NTSB said. British Airways spokesman John Lampl in a telephone interview yesterday disputed that the aircraft overshot the runway, saying there was ``no emergency, no overrun.''
After landing, the pilot couldn't see the correct taxiway because of poor lighting, Lampl said. The pilot stopped the plane, radioed for help and was guided to the gate, he said.
Lopatkiewicz said the incident doesn't count as a runway overrun because the plane had already landed successfully and was taxiing to the gate when it ran over the lights. The plane was towed from the overrun area to a taxiway and then went to the gate under its own power.
Brendan O'Grady, a spokesman for Blair's office in London, said the prime minister was on vacation and occasionally uses commercial flights.
A call to British Airways' press office today wasn't immediately returned.
