MIAMI — Federal investigators are examining a cargo plane’s approach to Miami International Airport after they say the aircraft overran a runway Sunday, killing five people in a van it struck.
Aviation experts say newly available flight-tracking data could provide investigators with another piece of evidence as they work to determine what went wrong.
Francisco Diaz, an airplane captain with experience flying the Boeing 767 cargo aircraft involved in the crash, said video of the incident appears to show an unstable approach.
“The airplane was approaching at around 170, 180 knots, which is very high for this type of airplane,” Diaz said. “In the 767, 150 to 140 is the normal approach speed.”
Diaz said the aircraft appeared to be carrying too much energy as it approached the runway.
“So by seeing the airplane pitching down, you can tell that it has too much energy, too much speed,” he said.
Video of the landing also appears to show the aircraft attempting to flare before touching down, Diaz said.
“When they got to the runway landing area, they tried to flare twice, and the airplane would float up back again,” he said. “And then they floated it through the whole runway almost to the end.”
New flight radar data may offer another clue.
In an analysis for Local 10, Diaz examined the aircraft’s approach path compared with the standard glide path pilots use to land on the runway.
The standard glide path is shown by a green line, while the incident aircraft’s approach is shown in red. Diaz said the data indicates the plane went above the glide path before attempting to correct its descent.
“It went above the glide path and then it tried to chase it back down, so that will make the whole approach unstable,” Diaz said.
But Diaz cautioned that the available information does not establish why the pilots continued the landing.
Local 10’s Christina Vazquez asked Diaz what could cause a pilot to continue an approach when some of the aircraft’s landing parameters appear to be outside normal ranges.
Diaz said investigators will have to consider a number of possibilities, including pilot workload, tunnel vision, a medical emergency, fuel concerns or weather conditions.
“You can have issues like tunnel vision where you are looking at the landing and it’s human nature to always want to finish that flight,” Diaz said. “It can also be a medical emergency.”
Fuel could also be a factor, he said, particularly if storms in the area made the pilots concerned about having enough fuel to execute a go-around and return for another landing.
“So now we just need to wait for the investigation,” Diaz said. “It can be many things.”
The National Transportation Safety Board is expected to examine the aircraft’s flight data and cockpit voice recordings as part of the investigation.
The cockpit recording could help investigators determine what the pilots were discussing and what was happening inside the aircraft during the approach and landing.
Investigators have not yet determined a cause for the crash.
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