Cockpit Audio Shows Repeated Speed Warnings Before Fatal Miami Cargo Crash

A pilot aboard an Amazon cargo plane that veered off a Miami runway and struck a van, killing five people, repeatedly warned of excessive speed during the approach and after touchdown, according to flight information released Wednesday. A summary of cockpit voice recordings compiled by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) indicated that the other pilot did not give a consistent verbal response to those warnings.

The aircraft landed awkwardly on Sunday afternoon, briefly tried to become airborne again, and then crashed into the van carrying workers from a plane cleaning company. It barreled roughly 1,300 feet (396 meters) past the end of the runway before hitting the van, then struck a compact SUV as it slid across a public road and caught fire. All five people who died were inside the van. Five others were injured, including two who remained in critical condition on Tuesday. The two pilots survived and were interviewed by investigators on Wednesday.

Flight data recorder information released late Tuesday showed the plane was unsteady as it came in to land amid strong winds. The pilots briefly disengaged the brakes and pushed the throttles forward as if attempting to take off again and retry the landing, but abandoned that effort four seconds later. The cockpit audio also captured automated warnings about descent speed and approaching terrain.

Former Federal Aviation Administration official Mike O'Donnell said that when the first speed warning was called out, the crew had several options to slow the aircraft, including extending spoilers, cutting throttles, and lowering the landing gear. They could also have aborted the landing and circled to try again. "You have plenty of time to slow down, plenty of time to say, let's just do a go-around at two minutes out," said O'Donnell, who previously oversaw airport safety and crash investigations. He added that the terrain warnings reinforced that the plane was unsteady and suggested it may not have been configured correctly for landing.

The aircraft was well down the runway when its right and nose landing gear first touched down, reducing the distance available to stop. Strong winds as storms moved in may have created a tail wind that helped propel the plane forward. Tracking site Flightradar24 estimated from NTSB data that the plane was nearly halfway down the 9,360-foot runway at first touchdown. The full transcript of the cockpit conversation will not be released until later in the investigation.