US investigators have revealed that a pilot of the Boeing 767-300 freighter that overran at Miami warned about excessive speed on final approach, while the aircraft subsequently generated multiple sink-rate and ground-proximity alerts as it descended.
After the aircraft touched down, one of the crew called for a go-around just 5 seconds before the jet left the runway surface.
National Transportation Safety Board investigators provided the update after further analysis of the cockpit-voice and flight-data recorders from the 21 Air aircraft, which overran Miami’s runway 30 on 6 September.
About 1 minute 11 seconds before touchdown, as one of the pilots called for 20° flap, the other “cautioned they were too fast”, said the inquiry.
This pilot also made additional comments regarding the aircraft’s excessive speed throughout the remainder of the cockpit-voice recording.
“There was not a consistent verbal response to the comments about speed,” the inquiry adds.
Over the 40 seconds between the 1,000ft call-out and touchdown, the jet issued several aural warnings of excessive sink rate, including below 500ft.
It also generated four ‘too low, terrain’ warnings after the 100ft call-out, after which – just 10 seconds before touchdown – one of the pilots called for 30° flap.
Another ‘too low, terrain’ alert was issued at about 40ft.
Some 15 seconds after the touchdown – and about 5 seconds before the aircraft left the paved runway surface – one of the pilots “called for a go-around”, said the inquiry.
While the cockpit-voice and flight-data recordings have yet to be fully synchronised, investigators had previously indicated that, about this time, the aircraft’s throttles were increased to go-around thrust for a few seconds before being reduced to idle power.
As the aircraft – branded for Amazon Air – went off the end of the runway, it struck a van and a car, killing five people before coming to a stop.
Additional reporting by David Kaminski-Morrow, FlightGlobal
