MIAMI — The Amazon cargo plane that overran a runway at Miami International Airport tried to abort an unsteady landing before it crashed and killed five people in an airline cleaning contractor van, flight data suggests.
Investigators with the National Transportation Safety Board released that information during a Tuesday news conference and plan to interview the pilot and co-pilot of the aircraft on Wednesday, The Associated Press reported.
Investigators hope the interviews may shed more light on why the Boeing 767-33A aircraft overran the runway on Sunday.
There were around two hours of good quality audio recovered from the cockpit, the Miami Herald reported.
According to an NTSB investigator, flight data showed no indication that speed brakes or thrust reversers were deployed before the plane barreled through the runway and struck a van owned by a plane-cleaning contractor with seven people inside, the newspaper reported.
The crash killed five people: Rolando Aleman Leon, 55; Yoel Rodriguez Narajo, 53; Julio C. Pineda, 75; Carlos Acosta Fajardo, 53; and Javierk Reyes Quevedo, 47.
Five other people were injured. The pilot and co-pilot have been released from the hospital, Miami-Dade County Sheriff Rosie Cordero-Stutz said Tuesday. Two people remain in critical condition, while a third is in stable condition, she said.
The takeoff weight of the plane was more than 252,000 pounds, and its cargo weighed around 32,000 pounds -- “mostly contact lenses,” NTSB Chairwoman Jennifer Homendy said.
[ ‘Utter devastation’: Amazon cargo plane overruns runway; victims identified ]
Homendy said the 2012 white Ford Ecoline van was owned by Professional Ocean Service Corporation and seven people were inside the vehicle, the Miami Herald reported. The Boeing 767-33A, which was operated by Miami-based 21 Air, also hit a Toyota Corolla Cross, according to the newspaper.
Only the pilot and co-pilot were on the aircraft, The New York Times reported.
The crash caused a full ground stop at the airport that lasted approximately three hours, according to the Herald. Two runways remain closed.
Former Federal Aviation Administration official Mike O’Donnell told the AP that the plane landing on its nose and right landing gear shows that the landing was unstable. He added that the pilot might have been attempting a go-around.
“A go-around probably should have been executed sooner than that,” O’Donnell told the news organization. “And it seems like they hesitated.”
As the Boeing 767-300 began its descent in Miami, it flew past the usual landing zone for Runway 30, the newspaper reported.
The aircraft remained airborne as it descended deep into the runway, CNN reported. By the time the aircraft reached the end of the runway, it was still moving forward at 130 mph, according to the cable news network.
The debris caused by the crash included vehicle airbags and “fencing everywhere,” Homendy said, according to The Associated Press.
The aircraft flew from Cincinnati to Miami and then to San Juan, Puerto Rico, according to the AP. It was returning to Miami when it overran the runway.
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