Originally posted by Max Stryker :
As for someone commenting on the MD-80 not being the easiest to land, I wouldn't agree, however there are two points to make here. The plane is tricky in only two situations...
You forgot the crosswind case! Like any aircraft with tail mounted engines, you have a big tendency of yaw forces with reversers on in crosswind. It's obvious that they had very strong crosswind (well, not as strong as in the northern hemisphere, but here with most likely a contaminanted runway). As soon as you revers full, you can get a huge turn movement on the vertical axis. The only solution is to reduce the reversers. So they did several attemps to land, then finally saw the runway, wanted to stop, stop quickly because of the runway condition (after the end there is only sea until India), pulled full reverse and where surprised they got off the runway, blaming the crosswind.
When you continue the ILS track (which is offset by 1°) straight after the minimum, you stop exactly where they stopped, right of the runway, on the hillside around in the middle of the runway length.
It's also most likely that pilots in the tropics very rarily experience crosswind landings, since there is no wind at all, and thus lack training. Add to this all the other factors mentioned before, this could very likely happen.
Dani