FLYING Magazine
The National Transportation Safety Board on Monday convened its first news briefing in the wake of Sunday’s fatal accident involving an Amazon Prime Air cargo jet that overran the runway at Miami International Airport (KMIA), killing five people.
NTSB Chairwoman Jennifer Homendy led the briefing and described the accident scene as “utter devastation,” with debris from the aircraft and two vehicles it struck spread “everywhere.” Homendy said that investigative teams had yet to access the aircraft, a Boeing 767-33A operated by Miami-based 21 Air, due to ongoing victim recovery operations.
Homendy said the site was “not a completely safe scene” for investigators and that it is “going to take time” before the jet is thoroughly examined and removed.
She added that teams recovered the jet’s flight data recorder (FDR) and cockpit voice recorder (CVR) and sent them to NTSB headquarters for analysis Monday evening. The NTSB chair laid out the investigation’s next steps over the coming days, explaining that investigators will break into teams to examine various aspects of the accident.
Homendy emphasized that the agency would not be determining the accident’s probable cause while personnel remain on scene for about a week. That, along with safety recommendations and other findings, will come in a final report once the investigation concludes.
“We are deeply committed to our duty, our responsibilities as an investigative agency, to determine how this accident occurred, why it happened, with one goal in mind: safety,” Homendy said. “And that’s to prevent it from happening again.”
She said Monday that the NTSB plans to hold a second news briefing Tuesday.
Initial Findings
Homendy said that the Boeing jet overran Miami International’s Runway 30 by about 1,300 feet on Sunday around 1:53 p.m. EDT. Local officials confirmed that five people died in the crash and another five people were injured, with three of them in critical condition.
Per Homendy, the 767-33A struck navigational aids and equipment before impacting a van with seven occupants. The van was operated by a cleaning company contracted by airlines. The jet then broke through a perimeter fence and struck a Toyota SUV before continuing into the grass and impacting another fence.
Homendy said all victims were in the cleaning company van, which was within airport boundaries, and SUV, which was outside the airport. She declined to comment on the status of the Amazon cargo jet’s pilot and copilot.
“Our deepest sympathies remain with the families, loved ones, and all those affected by this devastating tragedy,” Amazon spokesperson Kelly Nantel said in a statement Tuesday. “We’ll fully cooperate with [the NTSB] and support any other investigating authorities, and we’ll also continue to coordinate with 21 Air, which operated the flight.”
The NTSB sent a “go team” to Miami International, and a team of 32 personnel began arriving around 6 p.m. EDT Sunday. More arrived overnight and Monday. Homendy said she first visited the scene Monday morning, walking the length of the runway and past the impacted vehicles to the aircraft’s resting place.
She said the local FBI office was among first responders to the scene. The NTSB has a memorandum of agreement with the FBI, which she called a “force multiplier” that has been “extremely supportive over the years in helping us collect evidence in investigations.”
Homendy said there was “fuel everywhere” and that crews were continuing to remove it from the accident aircraft and recover victims. She described tire marks extending from the paved runway surface into the grass, leaving “debris everywhere.” The cleaning company van, she said, was “torn apart.”
“You can see components from vehicles, both passenger vehicles and the aircraft itself,” Homendy said, including “components of the navigational aids.”
The NTSB as of Monday had not yet accessed the Amazon jet and said that would only happen after victims are recovered.
“We have begun collecting investigative information,” Homendy said. “We do have data and information, but we are a very thorough, fact-based agency, and we don’t release that information until we have verified it…which we hope to do with much of the information [Tuesday].”
Aircraft structures investigators will “go in and begin documenting the scene and look at the airframe wreckage” once recovery operations are complete, she added.
The jet was arriving from San Juan, Puerto Rico, on its third leg of the day. According to FAA records, it was manufactured in 1994. Investigators plan to examine the aircraft’s age and many other factors in the coming days.
Next Steps
Homendy said the NTSB’s 32-person investigative team will divide and conquer, splitting into groups that will focus on certain aspects of the accident.
Airport Lacked EMAS
One team will examine airport survival factors, including Notices to Airmen (NOTAMs) issued around the time of the event, runway design, fire and rescue procedures, and Runway 30’s “lack thereof” of an Engineering Materials Arrestor System (EMAS).
The EMAS, as Homendy described it, is a crushable, lightweight material designed to safely stop an aircraft at the end of the runway. It is intended for runways that have a runway safety area less than 1,000 feet long.
The NTSB chair estimated that the system is installed at about 70 U.S. airports. A “key part of our investigation,” she said, will concern whether EMAS could have prevented Sunday’s accident and whether it should be installed universally.
Miami International Airport in a statement to the Miami Herald said its Runway 12/30 has the “full 1,000-foot Runway Safety Area mandated by the FAA.” The airport said EMAS is “generally used at airports where space constraints prevent a full safety area from being provided.”
“No U.S. airport has EMAS at a runway end that also maintains the full, unobstructed 1,000-foot safety area,” the statement read. “EMAS is intended as an alternative, not as an additional layer on top of one.”
Examining the Aircraft and Flight Crew
Homendy said another team will look at the history of the accident aircraft and the experience and training of its flight crew, as well as 21 Air’s policies, procedures, and “contractual relationship with Amazon.” That will include determining “who does what” and “what safety provisions might be in any sort of contracts,” she said.
The NTSB chair said the agency is hopeful that it can share more about the flight crew’s experience Tuesday. She said Monday that it had not yet interviewed them or “crewmembers of flights that may have landed prior to this flight,” which could help determine why the pilots decided not to go around.
Homendy said determining whether the flight crew lacked certain information, such as weather data, will also be “something that we look at.” Specialists will analyze the Amazon jet’s performance as well as forecast and actual weather conditions on landing.
Asked about the aircraft’s speed at landing, Homendy said the NTSB has data from “various sources” that it wants to confirm with the recovered flight data recorder before sharing publicly, hopefully on Tuesday.
Other NTSB teams will examine the FAA’s oversight of the operators involved in the incident, the jet’s engines, and its “hydraulic, electrical, navigational, pneumatic, and associated systems,” including instruments and flight controls. They will also analyze air traffic services, radar data, and air traffic controller-pilot communications.
Homendy on Monday estimated that the NTSB has conducted more than 3,000 runway excursion investigations since 2008. It is “too early,” she said, to say whether past recommendations may have been applicable to Sunday’s accident, emphasizing that the investigation remains in the “fact-finding phase.”
“We have a list of what those past recommendations are and the status of those recommendations, but it’s too early to say whether they were a factor here,” Homendy said, though she added that “our recommendations must be implemented or we’re going to be here again.”
The NTSB has asked members of the public with photos, video, or other information that could be relevant to the investigation to contact witness@ntsb.gov. Homendy cautioned that people sharing fake imagery has hindered previous investigations but said the public has been “very helpful” in the past.