FLYING Magazine
National Transportation Safety Board Chair Jennifer Homendy said Tuesday that she did not “know anything” about “reports of safety concerns” she has seen involving 21 Air—the operator of a Boeing 767-33A that crashed Sunday at Miami International Airport (KMIA), killing five people.
Since Homendy’s news briefing Tuesday, the second and final on-scene conference the NTSB conducted regarding the accident and investigation, former 21 Air employees have raised concerns with the operator’s allegedly lax safety procedures.
Some former employees, speaking with CBS News on Tuesday, claimed that 21 Air—which is headquartered in North Carolina and controlled by Jim Crane, owner of Major League Baseball’s Houston Astros—either failed to heed safety concerns raised by employees or retaliated against them for doing so.
“I don’t know anything about those [allegations], but what I will say is…if you have anything you want to share, please send that in to witness@ntsb.gov,” Homendy said.
The NTSB chair said Tuesday was “really our first full day of this investigation” and focused on examining the accident aircraft’s cockpit voice recorder (CVR) and flight data recorder (FDR), as well as analysis of perishable evidence from the scene.
Chihoon Shin, the investigator in charge (IIC) for the case, provided an initial analysis of the FDR. Shin said that with about 15 seconds remaining on the recording, the aircraft’s brakes were released and its thrusters “increased to values consistent with go-around thrust.” He said that toward the end of the recording, there was “no indication in the recorded data that speed brakes or [thrust] reversers were deployed.”
Investigators seek to combine their analysis of the FDR with audio from the CVR, which has not yet been released. The NTSB plans to do so Wednesday after interviewing the aircraft’s pilot and assistant chief pilot in the morning.
According to Homendy, the jet’s pilot is 55 years old, received his 767 type rating in May, and had 7,145 flight hours per his latest medical dated March 31. The first officer is 37 years old, received his 767 type rating in April 2025, and had 2,655 flight hours according to a medical dated August 13. Homendy said interviews with the pilots Wednesday would provide updated crew flight hours, which will be compared to 21 Air’s records.
Miami-Dade County Sheriff Rosie Cordero-Stutz on Tuesday identified the 21 Air pilots as Joseph Carroll, 55, and Jaime Felipe Silva Molina, 37. Cordero-Stutz said both were released from the hospital and that all five fatalities in the accident were in a van operated by a cleaning company contracted by airlines.
The 767 struck two vehicles, first the cleaning van and then a Toyota SUV, after overrunning Miami International’s Runway 30 by about 1,300 feet.
The NTSB’s investigation remains in the early stages, and the agency has not determined whether 21 Air or the pilots were culpable in the accident. It is also examining safety procedures at Miami International, including Runway 30’s lack of an Engineering Materials Arrestor System (EMAS).
Safety Concerns With 767 Operator
Homendy said the NTSB’s operations team visited 21 Air’s operations control center Tuesday and interviewed the company’s flight follower, a certified dispatcher who conducts preflight planning, checks Notices to Airmen (NOTAMs), and monitors weather, among other tasks.
Another interview is planned with the operator’s chief pilot, though it has not yet been scheduled.
A message from 21 Air CEO Keith Winters on the company’s website expresses sympathy for the families of the accident’s victims and promises to cooperate fully with the NTSB’s investigation.
CBS News reported, citing records and interviews with former employees, that the operator has “faced a string of safety complaints from senior staff.” One retired 21 Air pilot told the outlet that Sunday’s incident was “something a lot of us ex-21 Air pilots have been anticipating for a while.”
Employees alleged that 21 Air’s ownership was dismissive of safety concerns and discouraged personnel from raising them. They claimed that the operator deferred maintenance on its aircraft, hired low-quality pilots, and pushed employees to fly without proper rest.
The former president of 21 Air’s union, Karl Seuring, told CBS that the union had to purchase sleeping bags for pilots to get adequate rest on long flights. Seuring also alleged that pilots were “coached” on write-ups following safety incidents.
Seuring has a pending hearing before a federal judge after the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) rejected a legal complaint he made regarding the company’s lax attitude toward safety.
21 Air was operating the 767 that crashed on behalf of Amazon Prime Air. An Amazon spokesperson told CBS in a statement that the alleged safety violations “pre-date our relationship with the company.”
“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,” Amazon spokesperson Kelly Nantel said in a statement Tuesday.
Examining the Pilots’ Actions
The NTSB obtained the 767’s CVR and FDR on Monday and brought them back to its headquarters for analysis. On Tuesday, it shared early analysis that indicates the pilots may have attempted a late go-around.
Homendy said the CVR contains “more than two hours of good quality audio,” while the FDR contains about 55 hours of data.
Shin went into more detail. He said that 30 seconds before the end of the recording, the 767’s ground speed was 158 knots and its nose landing gear and right main landing gear touched down. At 23 seconds, brakes were applied. About eight seconds later, the brakes were released and thrusters were increased. At 11 seconds, the throttles were reduced to idle power and brakes were reapplied, remaining in those positions through the end of the recording. Ground speed was about 117 knots.
Shin said that at seven seconds, the aircraft’s “lateral, longitudinal, and vertical accelerations changed” and ground speed was 196 knots. Final ground speed at the end of the recording was 65 knots.
Asked why speed brakes and thrust reversers were not deployed as the 767 approached the runway’s end, Shin declined to speculate “about what should have been.”
“We have an aircraft performance study, and we’re going to do that,” Shin said. “Plus with the flight data recorder analysis, when we analyze the full list of parameters, we’ll have a better idea of the aircraft performance during this landing. Was it normal, was it not, and what was working and what was not.”
Homendy said Tuesday that an NTSB team was on-scene working through the aircraft performance study.
“The information I provided is only what’s on the flight data recorder,” Shin said. “What we need to do is talk to the crew…Crew interviews will help fill in some of the blanks for us that the crew remembers in terms of actions that they might have done, but not verbalized.”
The NTSB plans to release an “investigative update” Wednesday containing the full CVR readout after flight crew interviews.
Asked how far from impact the aircraft was when its brakes were released at 15 seconds, Homendy said that is “something we still have to determine” but will share when possible.
Other Updates and Next Steps
Homendy said NTSB’s 32-person investigation team will remain at Miami International for about a week, but the agency does not have a set time frame.
“It will take some time because we’re still…documenting the evidence, so we still have to have the aircraft there,” she said, adding that investigators are working through that process “expeditiously.”
Homendy said teams spent most of Tuesday documenting the scene and looking for perishable evidence that may not be obtainable once vehicles are removed and Runway 30 is cleared. The NTSB is using drones and collecting photos and video to document things such as measurements of the jet’s tiremarks on the runway.
Investigators on Tuesday examined the 767’s two engines and got in the cockpit, “but they’re going to want to get into other areas of the aircraft which they weren’t able to…and then of course take other measurements in the area,” Homendy said.
“There’s tire marks throughout the grass that they’re going to want to measure as well,” she added.
Homendy said the aircraft’s takeoff weight of 252,182 pounds comprised 32,222 pounds of cargo, primarily contact lenses. No hazardous materials were on board. Its planned landing weight was 231,236 pounds.
Investigators were also able to recover the black box from the Toyota SUV.
The NTSB is requesting information contained in manuals, procedures, and written documents. After completing their on-scene work, investigators will return to the agency’s headquarters to analyze the information and “pull together a preliminary report within a couple of weeks,” Homendy said.
The NTSB chair described the accident as “unthinkable” for families of the victims. The agency’s Family Assistance team, which coordinates with the Red Cross, is available for counseling and other resources.
“They are working with our partners to gather resources for the families, to provide them with all the latest information on our investigation in real time,” Homendy said. “But I’m sure it’s quite tragic for them.”
She also stressed that air traffic controllers (ATCs) may be similarly affected by the tragedy. Nick Daniels, president of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association (NATCA), took the NTSB chief to Miami International’s combined ATC tower and terminal radar approach control (TRACON) facility, where she spoke to controllers.
NATCA remains at the tower for support, and the union’s critical incident stress management (CISM) team offers peer-to-peer counseling.
“It can be quite traumatic, and they’re certainly going through a difficult time, not just from the tragedy, but also trying to get through a capacity constrained airport right now,” Homendy said.