Amazon jet pilots tried to abort unstable landing before plane overran Miami runway

Pilots of an Amazon cargo jet that overshot the runway at Miami International Airport had tried to abort an unstable landing, according to information released by investigators on Tuesday (local time).Upon landing, the plane overshot the runway and crashed into a van, killing five people inside. The accident occurred on September 13, and the flight recorders were recovered a day later.The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is investigating the crash. Investigators will interview the pilot, co-pilot and crew members on Wednesday as they seek to determine why the jet overran the runway.The crash injured five other people, two of whom remain in critical condition while a third is in stable condition.

The pilot and co-pilot have since been released from hospital.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.

Did pilots hesitate?

The Amazon jet was landing after a two-hour flight from Puerto Rico as storms brewed around Miami airport. According to the NTSB, the plane barrelled roughly 1,300 feet (396 metres) past the end of the runway.

According to Mike O'Donnell, a former Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), the fact that the plane landed on its nose and right landing gear first indicated an unstable landing. He suggested the pilot might have been attempting a “go-around” to retry the landing approach.“A go-around probably should have been executed sooner than that. And it seems like they hesitated,” he added.By the time the crew tried to abort the landing, O’Donnell noted, it may have been too late if there wasn’t enough runway left.

However, interviews investigators have scheduled with the pilots for Wednesday are expected to provide more insight into what they were thinking at that moment.Aviation attorney Mary Schiavo, a former Transportation Department inspector general, observed that “it almost seems like there was a disagreement between the pilots on what to do.”Video of the landing showed the plane hovering above the runway for a long time without flaring the nose to bring the wheels onto the ground.

Experts said it appeared a strong tailwind propelled the plane far past the point where it was supposed to land. Air traffic controllers had also not changed the approach to the runway to allow the plane to land into a headwind.Meanwhile, two of the Miami airport’s four runways remained closed on Tuesday and will not reopen until NTSB investigators have gathered all the information they need from the crash site.More than 225 flights have been cancelled since Sunday, while hundreds more have been delayed.(With AP inputs)