KINGSTON : An American Airlines flight from Miami with more than 150 aboard overshot a runway and skidded to the edge of the Caribbean Sea, injuring more than 40 people, officials said.

Flight 331 lurched down the runway of Norman Manley International Airport in the Jamaican capital last night. Crews evacuated the passengers, who had to walk along a beach in the rain to board buses to reach the terminal.

Some 44 people were taken to nearby hospitals with broken bones and back pains, Information Minister Daryl Vaz told The Associated Press.

Four people were seriously injured, said Paul Hall, senior vice president of airport operations. American Airlines said only two were admitted to the hospital and nobody suffered life-threatening injuries. The plane’s fuselage was cracked, both engines broke off from the impact, and the left main landing gear collapsed, airline spokesman Tim Smith said. Most of the injuries were cuts and bruises, and none were life threatening, he said.

US federal investigators will analyse whether the plane should have been landing in such bad weather, Smith said, adding that other planes landed safely amid heavy rain.

Some passengers leaving the plane were seen with cuts on their faces or bloody lips. Some looked visibly shaken as they left the terminal wrapped in red blankets. Others ducked under umbrellas to escape the heavy downpour.

Passenger Robert Mais told The Gleaner newspaper of Jamaica that he could hear the engine’s reverse throttle but that the plane didn’t seem to slow as it skittered down the runway. He said he felt rain coming through the roof of the darkened jet after the impact and that baggage from the overhead compartments was scattered throughout the cabin.

“Some (passengers) were shaken up badly,” he told the paper.

The plane was about 10 to 15 feet from the Caribbean Sea at that point, and passengers walked along the beach to be picked up by a bus, Mais said. The Boeing 737-800, which originated at Reagan National Airport in Washington, had taken off from Miami International Airport at 8:52 pm and arrived in Kingston at 10:22pm. It was carrying 148 passengers and a crew of six, American said. The majority of those aboard were Jamaicans coming home for Christmas, Vaz said.

“All of a sudden, when it hit the ground, the plane was kind of bouncing, someone said the plane was skidding and there was panic,” said passenger Pilar Abaurrea of Keene in New Hampshire.