The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) released excerpts from the cockpit voice recorder of the Amazon cargo flight that went off the runway at Miami International Airport on Sunday, September 6.
According to the agency, one of the pilots repeatedly warned his colleague for nearly two minutes that the plane was approaching too fast, and at the last moment, he requested to abort the maneuver. The other pilot never provided "a coherent verbal response" to those warnings.
Mike O’Donnell, a former official of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), explained to the AP that once the pilot warned that the plane was approaching too quickly, the crew had ample time to take actions to slow down: deploy the spoilers, reduce engine power, and lower the landing gear. Another option could have been to abort the landing at that moment and circle back before attempting again.
"There is plenty of time to reduce speed and sufficient time to decide to execute a go-around maneuver when there are two minutes left until landing," noted O'Donnell, who previously oversaw airport security and air accident investigations.
The data from the flight recorder reconstructed the last 30 seconds of the accident: the Boeing 767-300 touched down at 158 knots, a high speed for that phase of the flight.
A notable finding that has captured the attention of researchers is that the records do not show evidence that the crew deployed the speed brakes or the thrust reversers, two systems specifically designed to decelerate the aircraft during landing.
The airplane exceeded the end of the runway by about 1,300 feet (396 meters), crossed a perimeter fence, collided with a car and a van from the contractor Professional Ocean Service Corporation that was transporting seven cleaning workers, before catching fire.
The chairwoman of the NTSB, Jennifer Homendy, stated that the recorder contains more than two hours of high-quality audio, but the complete transcription will not be made public until the analysis of the interviews with the pilots is finished.
The two pilots -Joseph Carroll, 55 years old, and first officer Jaime Felipe Silva Molina, 37- suffered minor injuries and were discharged before being interviewed by NTSB investigators on Wednesday. Carroll had logged 7,145 flight hours and Silva Molina had 2,655.
The complete investigation, which will include maintenance records and operational documents from 21 Air – the cargo airline based in North Carolina that operated the flight for Amazon Prime Air – could take months to conclude.
As a result of the accident, five people lost their lives, all of Cuban origin: Rolando Alemán León (55 years old, from Cruces, Cienfuegos), Yoel Rodríguez Naranjo (53), Julio C. Pineda (75), Carlos Acosta Fajardo (53), and Javierkys Reyes Quevedo (47). Five others were injured; two remain in critical condition.
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