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🇪🇸 Spain /Disasters & Emergencies

Why did the Amazon cargo plane crash in Miami?

From La Vanguardia · () Spanish

Translated from Spanish and summarized by DistantNews. Read the original for the full story.

At a glance

News Named sources Under investigation
  • An Amazon Boeing 767 arriving from San Juan ran off the runway at Miami International Airport, struck vehicles and killed five people.
  • Aviation experts cited a potentially delayed landing, strong tailwinds and the aircraft's prolonged float over the runway as possible factors, but the investigation remains open.
  • The crash halted flights for much of the afternoon, while emergency crews battled an engine fire and a fuel leak.

A large plume of black smoke rose over Miami International Airport after an Amazon cargo plane ran off the runway, struck several vehicles and left five people dead and five others injured.

The injured people were taken to hospital, three of them in critical condition. Investigators are examining why the pilot lost control of the aircraft. Aviation safety expert Steve Arroyo told the Associated Press that landing normally occurs within the first 3,000 feet of a runway. If the aircraft was beyond that area, he said, the crew should have aborted the landing and made another approach.

Mary Schiavo, a pilot and former inspector general at the U.S. Department of Transportation, said video showed the plane floating over the runway for an extended period without raising its nose to force the main landing gear onto the surface. Storm clouds were present and winds were strong, although it was not raining. Schiavo said a tailwind could have contributed to the aircraft floating farther down the runway.

A tailwind would worsen the situation if the aircraft had already used a significant portion of the runway without landing immediately, Schiavo said. Miami's airport does not have the arresting systems installed at more than 120 U.S. airports, according to the Federal Aviation Administration. The FAA says those lightweight, deformable material beds have helped save at least 497 lives when aircraft ran off runways.

The crash stopped flights at the busy airport for much of the afternoon. About 200 emergency personnel found the aircraft engulfed in flames and smoke from a complex engine-compartment fire. Firefighters used specialized airport foam, while crews continued dealing with a fuel leak hours later. The 32-year-old Boeing 767 was originally built as a passenger aircraft and converted to a freighter in 2015. The investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board was still underway.

A tailwind would certainly worsen the problems if a good portion of the runway has already been lost by not landing immediately

· Mary SchiavoThe pilot and former U.S. Transportation Department inspector general discussed how wind could have affected the landing.
About this summary

Originally published by La Vanguardia in Spanish. Translated, summarized, and contextualized automatically by DistantNews, with a note on how the source frames the story. Not individually reviewed before publishing. How this works.

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