The five people killed when an Amazon cargo jet ran off a runway at Miami International Airport were all inside a van carrying seven people from a cleaning company, and an SUV hit outside of airport property, National Transportation Safety Board Chairwoman Jennifer Homendy said.
Homendy called the scene of Sunday’s crash "utter devastation". She didn’t detail how many people were in the SUV or where the dead were located.
Homendy walked the route the Boeing 767 followed, noting tire marks from the pavement into the grass, the destroyed van carrying the cleaning crew, torn fencing, navigational equipment, and the crushed SUV outside airport property.
The debris included vehicle air bags, equipment from the vehicles, the airplane and the airport, and "fencing everywhere", Homendy said.
“It’s pretty extensive. Hard to see and I’m sure it must have been very difficult for the responders as well,” Homendy said.
The airline, all told, travelled about 396m past the paved surface. Debris was everywhere, she said.
“I would describe it in one word as devastating, utter devastation,” Homendy said.
The van with seven people inside was “torn apart. It certainly must have been devastating,” she said. The van was owned by Professional Ocean Service Corp, an airline cleaning contractor.
All runways and taxiways were closed and a ground stop is in effect, an airport spokesperson said. (Source: Supplied)
Federal investigators examining cause of deadly overrun
Federal investigators examining the crash spent the day determining whether the plane touched down too late to stop safely.
Video of the landing appeared to show the Boeing 767 remaining airborne well down the runway before touching down. Aviation experts said investigators will seek to determine exactly where the plane landed, whether it was beyond the normal touchdown zone, and why the pilots did not abandon the landing.
Investigators will also examine the plane’s speed and braking, weather and wind conditions, the aircraft’s mechanical condition and other factors that could have contributed to the deadly overrun.
Aside from the five who died, three people were critically injured and two others were hospitalised with less severe injuries, officials said.
The crash, which sent thick black smoke billowing into the sky, trapped the pilot and co-pilot in the cockpit and some occupants in cars, said Miami-Dade Fire Rescue Chief Ray Jadallah. The agency said crews also had to extricate a person from under a vehicle.
The typical landing zone for a plane is within the first 914m of a runway, experts said. If the cargo jet was beyond that area, it should have aborted the landing and gone around for another try, aviation safety expert Steve Arroyo said.
Miami airport appears compliant without updated system
The Miami airport is not equipped with arresting systems that the FAA says have been installed at more than 120 airports nationwide to safely stop planes that go past the end of a runway. Those beds of lightweight, crushable material at the end of a runway have been credited by the FAA with helping save at least 497 lives aboard planes that overran runways.
Miami’s airport appears to be in compliance and wasn’t required to have an arresting system because it has a 300m safety buffer at the end of its runways, said Mike O’Donnell, the FAA’s former director of airport safety and accident investigations.
The flight had been operated by 21 Air, a cargo carrier based in North Carolina. The 32-year-old Boeing 767 was originally built to carry passengers and flew for several airlines for more than two decades before being converted to a cargo plane in 2015, according to flight-tracking site Flightradar24.
Amazon said in a statement that it would cooperate with any investigation.
“We’re heartbroken to learn that five people lost their lives in today’s incident at Miami International Airport," the company said.
“Our deepest sympathies go out to the families, loved ones, and all those affected by this devastating loss.”
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