Miami cargo plane crash: pilots warned of high speed before fatal overrun, NTSB says

A cargo Boeing 767 that overran a runway in Miami, killing five people on the ground, touched down too fast after one of its pilots repeatedly warned about the plane's excessive speed, federal investigators have revealed.

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has released a preliminary investigative update on the September 6 accident involving 21 Air Flight 7598. The flight, which was operating on behalf of Amazon Prime Air from San Juan, Puerto Rico, ended up 1,300 feet past the end of Runway 30 at Miami International Airport, where it struck ground vehicles.

While both pilots survived and have since been interviewed by investigators, five people on the ground were killed and several others were injured in the collision.

Speed warnings ignored in the cockpit

According to preliminary data recovered from the cockpit voice recorder, the flight crew was cleared to land by Miami tower just over four minutes before the recording ended. However, the approach quickly became unstable.

Nearly two minutes before touchdown, as the crew set the flaps to 20 degrees, one of the pilots cautioned that the aircraft was travelling too fast. For the remainder of the flight, this pilot continued to make comments about the aircraft’s excessive speed. The NTSB noted that there was no consistent verbal response to these warnings from the other pilot.

As the plane continued its descent, automated safety systems in the cockpit began triggering alarms. The cockpit voice recorder captured a "sink rate, sink rate" warning, indicating a dangerously high descent speed, which sounded twice. This was followed by five separate "too low terrain" alerts before the aircraft finally reached the runway.

A late, aborted attempt to escape

Flight data shows that the Boeing 767’s nose and right main gear touched down at a groundspeed of 158 knots. The left main gear did not make contact with the ground until eleven seconds later, by which point the groundspeed had dropped to 134 knots.

By landing at such high speed and so far down the runway, the pilots left themselves with drastically reduced stopping distance.

The flight data recorder captured a brief, late effort to abandon the landing altogether. Four seconds after the left gear touched down, with the plane travelling at 120 knots, a pilot called for a go-around. The crew released the wheel brakes and pushed the throttles forward to increase engine thrust.

However, the decision was reversed almost immediately. Just four seconds later, with the plane still moving at 117 knots, the throttles were pulled back to idle and the brakes were slammed on again.

Four seconds after that, the aircraft rolled off the paved runway surface at 96 knots. The flight data recorder cut out with the aircraft still moving at 65 knots.

Deceleration systems went unused

A major focus for investigators will be why the plane did not slow down properly. Preliminary data from the flight recorder shows no indication that the pilots deployed the plane’s speed brakes or thrust reversers.

These systems are crucial for stopping large transport aircraft. Speed brakes, or spoilers, destroy wing lift to put more weight on the wheels for braking, while thrust reversers redirect engine power forward to help slow the jet down.

The NTSB has not yet determined the formal cause of the accident. A specialised group will meet in Washington in the coming weeks to produce a full, written transcript of the cockpit voice recorder.