A video recorded with a cellphone captured the moment when one of the pilots of the Amazon cargo plane that went off the runway at the Miami International Airport jumped out of the cockpit and ran away as the aircraft burned, according to a report from Telemundo 51.
The incident, which occurred on Sunday, resulted in five deaths and five injuries.
The author of the recording was Olvin Henriquez, who was traveling with his family —including his four-month-old daughter— near the airport when the Boeing 767-300 from the airline 21 Air, operated for Amazon Air, overshot the end of runway 30, crossed the airport perimeter, and struck at least two vehicles.
“It was shocking to witness all of that; then, unexpectedly, we saw the pilot jump out of the cockpit and run for his life as the plane rapidly went up in flames,” Henriquez told Telemundo 51.
“My family and I immediately turned the car around, fearing that the plane might explode violently,” he added.
The witness also described a scene of unsettling silence moments before the impact:
"Everything was very quiet; despite being so close, none of us heard the plane dragging on the ground. Before we realized it, we saw that enormous plane engulfed in flames and the wreckage scattered in front of us."
The closeness of his family to the final journey of the aircraft left him unsettled.
"Just thinking that, just moments before, my entire family could have been dragged down by the plane —as unfortunately happened to other vehicles and people— is terrifying,” he wrote to the mentioned outlet.
Five dead, all in the vehicles
Flight 7598 had departed from Luis Muñoz Marín International Airport in San Juan, Puerto Rico.
Upon exceeding the end of the runway, the aircraft traveled approximately 396 meters beyond the pavement and struck a van from the contracted company Professional Ocean Service Corporation, which was transporting seven cleaning workers, and a civilian utility vehicle located outside the perimeter.
All the fatalities were in the vehicles, not on the plane. Three people were transferred in critical condition to a trauma center; two others were admitted with less serious injuries.
The two pilots were initially trapped in the cockpit, according to the Miami-Dade Fire and Rescue Department.
Both received medical attention and were discharged.
More than 60 units and around 200 personnel responded to the scene, employing specialized foam to combat the fire and working for hours to control a fuel leak.
The federal investigation
The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) launched formal investigations.
The investigators have already recovered the black boxes for analysis in Washington.
One of the points that investigators need to clarify is where the plane touched down, and how that contact point relates to the available distance to complete the landing.
Data from Flightradar24 indicates that the aircraft was traveling at about 210 kilometers per hour when it left the operational area.
The pilot and former Inspector General of the U.S. Department of Transportation, Mary Schiavo, pointed out to Associated Press that the images seem to show that the plane did not raise its nose during landing and suggested that a tailwind may have extended the landing distance.
The aviation security expert, Steve Arroyo, stated that if the aircraft exceeded the first 914 meters of the runway without landing, the crew should have aborted the maneuver.
The debate about the EMAS system
The accident has reignited the discussion regarding the absence of the EMAS system in Miami, a mechanism present in over 120 airports in the U.S. that helps halt aircraft that overrun the runway by utilizing a bed of deformable material at the end of the runway.
The FAA reports that the EMAS has saved at least 497 lives in 26 incidents.
Captain Francisco Díaz, who claimed to have piloted the same aircraft a decade ago, described the landing as an "unstable approach" and demanded, "Miami airport is investing $9 billion in infrastructure. Please include a system like EMAS for all runways."
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