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Cargo Jet Tried to Abort Landing 09/09 06:35
MIAMI (AP) -- Flight data suggest an Amazon cargo plane tried to abort an
unsteady landing at Miami International Airport before smashing into a van and
killing five people inside, according to information investigators released
Tuesday.
National Transportation Safety Board investigators will interview the pilot
and co-pilot on Wednesday as they try to determine why the jet overran the
runway while landing Sunday.
NTSB Chairwoman Jennifer Homendy said at an evening news conference that
they are reviewing flight data and cockpit recordings to figure out what
happened in the seconds before the aircraft slammed into the van on airport
property, careened through a fence and then smashed an SUV on a city street.
Homendy said investigators want to talk to the pilots before releasing
anything from the cockpit voice recorder about why they appeared to briefly
attempt to perform a go-around to retry the landing approach before abandoning
that and trying to stop the plane. She said the data showed the thrust
reversers were never used to help stop the plane.
The five people killed were all inside a van used to shuttle crews that
clean planes, authorities said.
Five other people were injured. The pilot and co-pilot have been released
from the hospital, Miami-Dade County Sheriff Rosie Cordero-Stutz said Tuesday.
Two people remain in critical condition, while a third is in stable condition,
she said.
Both the mangled white van, its entire front end crushed, and the SUV -- so
badly damaged it was nearly unrecognizable -- remained at the crash site
Tuesday, along with the jet, which sat nose-down with a large soot mark near
the P in "Prime Air."
Expert says the pilots may have hesitated
The Amazon jet was landing after a two-hour flight from Puerto Rico as
storms brewed around the Miami airport. The NTSB said the plane barreled
roughly 1,300 feet (396 meters) past the end of the runway.
Former FAA official Mike O'Donnell said Tuesday the fact that the plane
landed on its nose and right landing gear first demonstrates this was an
unstable landing. He said the pilot might have been attempting a go-around.
"A go-around probably should have been executed sooner than that. And it
seems like they hesitated," O'Donnell said.
O'Donnell said that by the the time the crew tried to abort the landing, it
may have been too late if there wasn't enough runway left. But the interviews
investigators scheduled with the pilots for Wednesday will reveal more about
what they were thinking at that moment.
Aviation attorney Mary Schiavo, who once was the Transportation Department's
Inspector General, said "it almost seems like there was a disagreement between
the pilots on what to do."
The weather could have also been a factor because experts said it appeared a
strong tail wind propelled the plane far past the point where it was supposed
to land. Investigators will want to know what the pilots were told about the
weather and why air traffic controllers had not flipped the approach to the
runway to allow the plane to land into a headwind.
All the people killed were in a cleaning service van
Amazon said in a statement that it is cooperating with the investigation and
the company's deepest sympathies go to the victims and their families.
The five people killed were all in a van owned by Professional Ocean Service
Corp., a company that cleans planes. The company said it wouldn't comment on
the crash out of respect for the families who lost loved ones.
"Our employees are far more than the people who work beside us each day,
they are family, and they are deeply loved. Our hearts and prayers are with
every employee and every family whose lives have been forever changed," the
company said in a statement Tuesday.
The Miami-Dade sheriff identified the deceased as Rolando Aleman Leon, 55;
Yoel Rodriguez Naranjo, 53; Julio C. Pineda, 75; Carlos Acosta Fajardo, 53; and
Javierkys Reyes Quevedo, 47.
Homendy said the crash raises safety concerns for workers at airports. "This
is certainly very tragic. You would not think riding in a van to clean an
airplane, that this would happen," she said.
Miami doesn't have a special system to stop runaway planes
Homendy has said that investigators will look at whether the lack of a
special system to slow and stop speeding jets at the end of Miami's runways
could have been a factor in the crash. But other experts say the airport
complied with FAA requirements to provide a cleared buffer space of at least
1,000 feet (305 meters) past the end of the runways.
Miami is not one of the more than 120 airports in the U.S. with lightweight,
crushable material that the Federal Aviation Administration says has saved
around 500 lives.
Homendy said her agency's goal is to prevent tragedies, but thousands of
runway excursions have continued to happen. The NTSB's final report will
identify the cause and make recommendations to prevent it from happening again,
but that likely won't be complete until a year or more from now.
The jet started as a passenger plane before converting to cargo
The flight had been operated by 21 Air, a cargo carrier based in North
Carolina. The 32-year-old Boeing 767 was originally built to carry passengers
and flew for several airlines in foreign countries for more than two decades
before being converted to a cargo plane in 2015, according to flight-tracking
site Flightradar24.
The Miami airport regained the use of a third runway Tuesday evening after
the NTSB released it, but investigators are still documenting the evidence
around the wreckage at the end of the runway the jet landed on.
More than 225 flights were canceled Sunday and Monday, and hundreds more
were delayed, officials said. But that should improve now that the airport can
use three of its four runways.
Homendy said the NTSB will try to release the runway back to the airport as
quickly as possible after investigators document the scene.
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